Galaxy's Edge Space Bar (archive)

[Myitt]

"So?  I've had my host for just around the same amount of time, and she's perfectly functional," Myitt says blandly.  "What've you been doing to her, anyway?  Surely some mental suppression, some severe damage is not unheard of.  But she really deserves freedom, regardless of her present neural state."  She sighs, looking around.  "How the hell do I explain this..."

<Let me.>

"Ugh, it takes too long," Myitt protests.

<It's effective.>

Myitt stares at the bar counter, drumming her useful fingers against the counter nervously.  "Fine," she spits.

<Sit me down first, I hate it when my legs get all Jell-O-ey.>

She sits in a bar chair in a huff, holding her left hand to her right ear.  The Yeerk starts to disengage from its host's mind, slithering slowly out into a hand that starts trembling from the shift in neurotransmitted control after a few moments.  Besides, in Tara's line of thinking, it's annoying to hold your arm up for that long. 

Corliss watches, eyes tracking.  "What the hell is this going to prove?  You said it yourself, she's not going to change 'er mind..."  But his sibling can't answer him, half of her slimy grey mass oozing over the edges of her human friend's hand. 

It takes a few moments more before Myitt sinks in on herself, forming that sluglike form everybody knows and loves, and Tara rubs her ear, scowling.  "Goddamn how much did she drink?" Tara slurs, holding Myitt out.  "Barten...hrm...bart ender, can you slide that tupperware pool over here?  Sorry Myitt, you'll have company, I know it's crowded.  Deal with it."  The bartender slowly moves the little, weakly humming plastic tub over, and Tara places Myitt in with Temrash and the sputtering emergency Kandrona wave/particle generator. 

She looks over at Ardiss.  "So, I guess I'm supposed to convince you to change your brainwashy ways, Yeerk," she says, swaying a little. 

[Chad32]

"I'm a sentient being." Jagill said. "How old do you think I am?"

Temrash noticed another Yeerk had entered the machine. He moved over, politely. There was no telling who it was, though. "Hey." He echolocated.

[Terenia]

Kara watches with wide eyes, too shocked and fascinated to answer Jagill's question, or properly respond to Myitt...Tara. She tries to shrug it off and addresses both of them at once, "You two are voluntary hosts," she shrugs, trying to seem nonchalant, "It is not unheard of."

[Chad32]

"It's nice making a mootuul agreement between Hork and Yeerk. It helps. we didn't start out like this. But it turned out like this because we found out the truths."

[Myitt]

"Right, voluntary hosts who started out involuntary," Tara says dryly.  "I did not want that thing in my head.  When I first met Myitt, we were extremely not friends.  And do you really think I'd throw my life away so I could get shot at by aliens all the time?  Ones that want to tear me apart just because they hate something living inside me?  Nuh uh.  I believe in this crap, now, but at first?  I would've loved sitting in an easy chair every three days, watching TV while my arrogant master of the universe swam around for a while.  I'm not one of those Club Med ****s.  So why don't you really listen to whatever's left of that human girl in there with you, see if there's anything salvageable, see if maybe you can make amends for ****ing up her entire life."  She smiles the same quick and dangerous smile Myitt loves to make use of.  "Or you can listen to me, and I'll give you a goddamned earful."

Corliss raises his eyebrows and glances at Jagill.  "You said it nicely, too, there, mate," he says, a bit nervously, grinning at Tara.  "'Lo Tara, nice to see ya."

"Hello, Corliss," Tara says dully, still glaring at the other human-Controller.

[Chad32]

"Hi Tara. Hey. You want to go do something after this? Myitt and Temrash be good for while." He said. He liked taking opportunities to hang out with other hosts.

[Terenia]

Kara takes an involuntary step back at the tirade coming from the formerly somewhat-calm person in front of her. She glances down a the tupperware container, ready for the human to be reclaimed by its master.

"So what is it you fight for, then?" she asks carefully, "Galaxy-wide peace between parasite, herbivore and predator? You think that the mighty Andalites would allow that? Do you think that they would allow the Hork-Bajir," she looks pointedly at Jagill, "anything but a few desolate trees on a carefully watched and monitored reservation? Peace is impossible."

[Chad32]

"We will end war. We will fight until people decide they don't want to fight anymore. We will destroy Council. Maybe Electorate too. We don't want genocide. But we do want the war to end.

[Myitt]

"Yeah, Jagill, we can chill, but let's get something straight," says Tara, turning back to Ardiss.  "Galaxy-wide peace is pretty damned near impossible.  We aren't delusional.  What we're fighting for is a change in mentality.  Between Yeerk, human, Andalite, Hork-Bajir.  Representatives.  Even just a few people, a small percentage, people who are open minded enough to believe that peace can be reached between individuals.  That the Yeerk Empire can't keep fighting and conquering forever.  Isn't that obvious?  Do you expect the war to keep going ad infinitum?  No.  It's not going to, someday the Empire will stop conquering after it's glutted on the misfortunes of as many free people as it can, or, we get our way and the Empire is demolished.  Maybe a little democracy rears its ugly but effective head.  And we just hope we're alive to see the frigging Macy's Day Parade."

[Terenia]

"The war will be over when the Andalites are defeated," another well-rehearsed line, spoken over and over down through the ranks. The end was always with the Andalites. Kara sighs heavily and rubs her temples, as if a headache is coming on, "I think that the lot of you are mad," she says bluntly, finally detaching herself from Mar long enough to sit on a vacant barstool and stare through the haze glumly, "but I suppose I'm not in much of a position to be arguing morality. Not when a few weeks ago I was happily starving my own kind of Kandrona, for the greater good of Yeerkish kind." she takes a bitter, unhappy swig.

[Myitt]

"Yes, I think you're probably right," says Tara with a rueful smile.  "We are mad.  But we aren't losing.  And we don't need to brainwash or torture anyone.  God, you people have memory dumps!  You regularly flip through brains like you're reading ****ing Highlights.  You don't need to lay a hand on anyone to get information."

[Terenia]

She shrugs helplessly, "I know that," she says softly, "why do you think I am here and not back on Visser Seven's Blade Ship?"

Kara is surprised to find that, despite herself, she is talking to this human like...well, like an equal. It is a slightly disconcerting fact. She takes a deep breath, steadying her thoughts. For a moment or two there they had become clear, but this new drink that Myitt provided her with is just making them fuzzy again.

"I don't..." she pauses, and tries again her voice a low hiss, "the Empire will kill me if I return to them. If I am lucky they will kill me. In two days I need Kandrona, and I certainly don't have any with me. What choices do I have?" she growls in an accusing way, "What would you have me do?"

[Chad32]

"Be nice to your host. Treat her like a partner. Not a vehicle. Temrash trusts me to keep him safe. I am the only one he can really trust."

[Myitt]

Tara shrugs faintly.  "We can help you.  In return, perhaps you can help us.  You can make damn sure that you don't sell us out to win your place back into the ranks.  There are ways of obtaining or building Kandrona generators.  If we decide we like you, you won't have to suffer, just because you're starting to see the other side of the coin.  Personally, I'd like to talk to Kara, the human whose life you've obliterated.  I'd like to see what she wants to do.  What do you think, Kara?  You want a little more 'you' time?"

[Terenia]

She raises her eyebrows, thrown off by having someone address her host, "you wouldn't be able to tell whether it is me talking or her. But for the record, of course she thinks that your idea's are marvelous. One step closer to her pathetic life back on Earth, in her mind."