Dana talks to an old associate
Jan. 20th, 2011 01:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
loloteheTrying to figure out one character. I don't know if I would even use this scene.
Captain Dana fed her axolotls and smiled slightly. They looked as happy as they could, swimming in their tank, eating fish-pellets.
“You are dependent on me,” she told them. “You do not understand me, or where your food comes from, or why you have clean water. You are innocent and I love you.”
The pink, naked, little lives swam and ate to their tiny hearts' content.
“You will never understand that I love you,” Dana said. She rested a hand against the glass of the tank. “I will care for you all your lives.”
A buzz distracted her from the tank and Dana accepted the incoming visit.
Retired Admiral Nie Faren appeared, seated and smiling. “I got your whisper. How is the Shipping Authority's tamed wolf today?”
Dana curled her lip in a mock-snarl. “Hungry. How is Sir Squid today?”
He laughed. “As well as an old man can be in this day and age. Congratulations on your promotion.” He bowed his head and watched her through thick eyebrows. “I see you are tired.” The events in the Iron Cloud are wearing you down, he chittered.
They met like this maybe once a month. She would send a whisper, he would visit. They would chitter to one another, the only members of the Shipping Authority who spoke the language naturally.
Because Dana never visited Faren, she never saw his garden or the scrolls of poetry hung in his home.
I'm not dealing with the Iron Cloud, Dana chittered back, repeating the Vencume term for the Ursus Major-47 system. My attention is on the Triple Points.
“What's at Cygnus-16?” Faren asked. “One of your sisters is working there?”
Dana nodded. “Mala is there. I've been put in charge of her project. I wanted to ask your advice.”
The old man nodded. “It is good to work with family. It is not good to be responsible for them. Are you worried about conflict?”
Dana shook her head.
“You are worried about disappointment. Whose?”
“Hers, mostly,” Dana said. “The project she is working on is very important to the Authority and she has been unable to find the assistants she needs. I'm supposed to train people she can use. These people make me...nervous.”
“How so?”
“We use an evidencer to see if they will be suitable,” Dana said. “I've been screening potential candidates, but there's...information I'm getting off them I don't understand.”
What information? Faren chittered.
Dana sighed and pressed her hand to her right eye. “They have families. There's a fear they experience about not seeing them again. It clutters the process.”
He nodded. “When you first came to us, the Central Branch immediately recognized your potential. You were the RongDan, the Proud Urchin. In time, we came to know you as the Crystalline Intelligence. It was not your clarity we described.”
“What?” Dana's head snapped up and she narrowed her eyes.
“You have never held a sea urchin,” Faren said. “They are covered in brittle spines. The name comes from a version of hedgehog. Do you know the story of the hedgehog and the fox?”
“I don't know what a hedgehog is.”
“The fox knows many little tricks, but the hedgehog knows one big trick,” he said. “iLyssa is a fox. You are a hedgehog. You are single-minded and dedicated.”
Dana dismissed the idea with a typical Shipping Authority wave of the hand. “I'm not talking about Lyssa. I'm talking about Mala.”
“Have you screened your other sister?” he asked.
“No,” she said. “I know she can do it. She has the mind for it, as well as other things. Lyssa is too power-hungry and I don't want her involved.”
“iLyssa is married with two children,” Faren said. “She knows many more little tricks than you do. You would find her distracting. She bends where you break.”
Dana frowned. “You think me too fragile.”
“I think you too brittle,” he said. “Your dedication to the Authority is unusual. You should leave the station, visit your family. I know you have many...cousins. You have substituted the Authority for the Vencume and seek their approval.”
“I don't care about the Vencume,” Dana said. “They left. To hell with them.”
“They abandoned you,” Faren said. “You need a structure around you, because the outside world is too mutable. We may have called you an urchin, but you are really a clownfish, never venturing far from your anemone.”
Dana's right eye started to flutter again. “I have been on assignment for the last three years. I have been everywhere due to that. I have ventured further than most people do in a lifetime.”
“But always in the soft and comforting tentacles of the Authority.”
The same tentacles that have allowed you a comfortable old age, Dana chittered. You did not venture very far, as long as you were cared for.
Faren did not smile. You will grow old, as I have, he chittered back. I will die, eventually. The Vencume are not here to make more people who can understand you.
“Thank you for your time,” Dana said. “This visit is over.”
After cutting the connection, Dana sat for a long time, watching her axolotls. They were unaware of how upset she was after her conversation with the retired Admiral. Even if they had understood, they probably would not have cared.
Dana envied them for that, slightly.
Captain Dana fed her axolotls and smiled slightly. They looked as happy as they could, swimming in their tank, eating fish-pellets.
“You are dependent on me,” she told them. “You do not understand me, or where your food comes from, or why you have clean water. You are innocent and I love you.”
The pink, naked, little lives swam and ate to their tiny hearts' content.
“You will never understand that I love you,” Dana said. She rested a hand against the glass of the tank. “I will care for you all your lives.”
A buzz distracted her from the tank and Dana accepted the incoming visit.
Retired Admiral Nie Faren appeared, seated and smiling. “I got your whisper. How is the Shipping Authority's tamed wolf today?”
Dana curled her lip in a mock-snarl. “Hungry. How is Sir Squid today?”
He laughed. “As well as an old man can be in this day and age. Congratulations on your promotion.” He bowed his head and watched her through thick eyebrows. “I see you are tired.” The events in the Iron Cloud are wearing you down, he chittered.
They met like this maybe once a month. She would send a whisper, he would visit. They would chitter to one another, the only members of the Shipping Authority who spoke the language naturally.
Because Dana never visited Faren, she never saw his garden or the scrolls of poetry hung in his home.
I'm not dealing with the Iron Cloud, Dana chittered back, repeating the Vencume term for the Ursus Major-47 system. My attention is on the Triple Points.
“What's at Cygnus-16?” Faren asked. “One of your sisters is working there?”
Dana nodded. “Mala is there. I've been put in charge of her project. I wanted to ask your advice.”
The old man nodded. “It is good to work with family. It is not good to be responsible for them. Are you worried about conflict?”
Dana shook her head.
“You are worried about disappointment. Whose?”
“Hers, mostly,” Dana said. “The project she is working on is very important to the Authority and she has been unable to find the assistants she needs. I'm supposed to train people she can use. These people make me...nervous.”
“How so?”
“We use an evidencer to see if they will be suitable,” Dana said. “I've been screening potential candidates, but there's...information I'm getting off them I don't understand.”
What information? Faren chittered.
Dana sighed and pressed her hand to her right eye. “They have families. There's a fear they experience about not seeing them again. It clutters the process.”
He nodded. “When you first came to us, the Central Branch immediately recognized your potential. You were the RongDan, the Proud Urchin. In time, we came to know you as the Crystalline Intelligence. It was not your clarity we described.”
“What?” Dana's head snapped up and she narrowed her eyes.
“You have never held a sea urchin,” Faren said. “They are covered in brittle spines. The name comes from a version of hedgehog. Do you know the story of the hedgehog and the fox?”
“I don't know what a hedgehog is.”
“The fox knows many little tricks, but the hedgehog knows one big trick,” he said. “iLyssa is a fox. You are a hedgehog. You are single-minded and dedicated.”
Dana dismissed the idea with a typical Shipping Authority wave of the hand. “I'm not talking about Lyssa. I'm talking about Mala.”
“Have you screened your other sister?” he asked.
“No,” she said. “I know she can do it. She has the mind for it, as well as other things. Lyssa is too power-hungry and I don't want her involved.”
“iLyssa is married with two children,” Faren said. “She knows many more little tricks than you do. You would find her distracting. She bends where you break.”
Dana frowned. “You think me too fragile.”
“I think you too brittle,” he said. “Your dedication to the Authority is unusual. You should leave the station, visit your family. I know you have many...cousins. You have substituted the Authority for the Vencume and seek their approval.”
“I don't care about the Vencume,” Dana said. “They left. To hell with them.”
“They abandoned you,” Faren said. “You need a structure around you, because the outside world is too mutable. We may have called you an urchin, but you are really a clownfish, never venturing far from your anemone.”
Dana's right eye started to flutter again. “I have been on assignment for the last three years. I have been everywhere due to that. I have ventured further than most people do in a lifetime.”
“But always in the soft and comforting tentacles of the Authority.”
The same tentacles that have allowed you a comfortable old age, Dana chittered. You did not venture very far, as long as you were cared for.
Faren did not smile. You will grow old, as I have, he chittered back. I will die, eventually. The Vencume are not here to make more people who can understand you.
“Thank you for your time,” Dana said. “This visit is over.”
After cutting the connection, Dana sat for a long time, watching her axolotls. They were unaware of how upset she was after her conversation with the retired Admiral. Even if they had understood, they probably would not have cared.
Dana envied them for that, slightly.
