The Galactic War: Rogue Element ~The Beginning

[Myitt]

Tara hugs Ossanlin, letting her hands rest on his back and hiccuping back a fresh wave of tears.

"Thanks," she whispers, her energy sapped. She nods. "I know. You didn't have to save us, but you risked all these people's lives, and yours, for us." She steps back, sniffling and wiping at her cheeks. "Those of us who are left. I...don't know how to begin properly thanking you."


Niko eyes Dom with a bitter expression. "I can't stand not knowing about the others," he murmurs. "Even just knowing whether they were alive or dead." He casts a forlorn stare up at the doorway to the pool room. "And no Reyliss. Poor, sweet goddamn Reyliss. ****, Dom."



<<Yeah,>> Myitt whispers to Illim. <<We're still alive. And still here. I want to go out there and talk to them.>>

When Lanath returns to their little circle, Myitt breaks herself away from Illim, her osmotic gray skin unusually clammy and reluctant.

<<Okay,>> she says, resolute, addressing everyone in the pool. <<We need to regroup with our human counterparts, figure out where Ossanlin thinks he's taking us, and remember that they are supposed to be our allies. They saved our tails, and we owe them our gratitude. Let's be civil, no matter what they say or what they think of us. And by the Kandrona, let's keep on living. And fighting. We're down and damaged, but we can still fight, while we still breathe, dammit.>>

To Keshin, specifically, she adds, bluntly, <<Looks like this is your chance to finally join us, unless you're only envisioning credit insignia and boxes of syringes.>>

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin nods to Tara, and then shakes his head.  <It's alright...everyone here and everyone left on the Tyrennian was made fully and painfully aware of the cost of this mission before they were given the option to partake of it.  They have their quirks, but each one is solid.  It was the only option, Tara.  We could no longer serve a government willing to commit genocide.  The fact that they stripped the Alpha Line bare and subsequently lost our...their...posit ion didn't help either.> He shakes his head again.  <Don't thank us yet, there's still far too much up to chance for that.>  He lays a hand on Tara's shoulder briefly and looks into her eyes.  <You're strong, you and Myitt both.  I'm going to need that strength if we're going to have any hope of surviving.>  He nods before turning back toward the pool.

<Pool-bound rebels, Tara is here, she will be submersing her hand shortly.>

He addresses the entire occupancy of the ship next.  <Those of you with controllers, they are ready to rejoin you.  Please line up at the med-bay and we'll reunite you as efficiently and quickly as possible.>

[Myitt]

Tara smiles faintly and nods, still brushing at her cheeks. "I know, Ossanlin. We're nothing if not survivors." She eyes the pool, leaning over it with a sigh.

Gently she places her hand into the pool, fishing Myitt out and giving no one a second glance, lifting the dripping Yeerk to her left ear as if it were the most natural thing in the world.


<<Perhaps it would be prudent to tell them which in which order we will be received,>> Lanath murmurs. <<With no pool-based communications system this is rather more difficult than usual. It would help.>>

<<Yeah,>> Myitt breathes, glad to have something to work towards, something accomplishable. <<Sure, Lanath, good idea. Let's get in some sort of a line, I guess. Tell Ossanlin we're, um...hell, I guess I should go first, if Tara's waiting. Then Keslin, Keshin, Illim, and Lanath. Sound fair?>> She pauses, and if she were human, she'd probably be blushing. <<The order is random, of course.>>

With a gentle displacement of water, Tara's hand dips into the pool. Myitt clicks to the others, suddenly apprehensive of what they all might find on the other side.

<<Right,>> she says firmly. <<Fare well, for the moment.>>

She slides between Tara's fingers, allowing her friend to lift her up and up through the warm, dry shipboard air.

After what feels like an eternity, Myitt senses Tara's ear, worming her way into Tara's head.

And then she is staring out through human eyes, the transition so bright and disorienting after ages in the dark that she is actually momentarily stunned. She blinks and straightens her neck, staring without saying anything, though her expression shifts naturally into one of confused curiosity, brow furrowing. Her eyes track as she recounts Tara's memories, so absorbed with the task that she doesn't even think to say hello to Ossanlin.

<<It's good to see you, too,>> Tara says dryly. <<Can you wipe off my damn ear? I feel like I just took a shower.>>

<<They didn't mistreat you,>> Myitt says with urgency, flipping through the events of the last few days in Andalite captivity.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

<Welcome back to the sighted world, Myitt.>  Ossanlin eye-smiles a bit before addressing the rest of the ship again.

<Myitt and Tara are reunited, who's next?>

[Myitt]

Lanath swims forward to relay the order in which they will be received, pressing his palps against the transponder.

<<Hello, Ossanlin. We have determined a preliminary order: Keslin, Keshin, Illim and I will form a small line to be reunited with our human friends.>>

He breaks away again and turns to the others. <<If that is acceptable, I will let you start, Keslin.>>


Myitt blinks rapidly, her dazed expression clearing.

She looks from the pool to Ossanlin. Slowly, sadly, she smiles. "Hi," she exhales. She reaches up to press a hand against his shoulder. "You really did it, this time, you know that? Did you really envy our ragtag existence that much?" Her eyes reflect the warmth of her smile, and she shakes her head. "Tell me, where exactly are we headed?"

[Terenia]

"I'll go next," Chris says immediately, though he has yet to hear the decided upon order. Giving Tess a reassuring smile he steps over to the pool, waiting as Myitt reinfests Tara. Once it is clear the Yeerk is in control he puts a hand on her back.

"Hey," he murmurs, his smile shaking a little as he draws one of his oldest friends into a hug. Fresh tears sting his eyes and his strong arms tremble a little. "Is everyone okay in there?" he asks, glancing down at the murky pool water.


Aya, who has been largely silent, appears at Chris' side. "I'll take Lanath," she tells him quietly, without bothering to look at him, her bloodshot eyes on the pool. "I don't know where Zach is, but he isn't here."


Efaen watches Claxter go, then looks around, suddenly feeling incredibly out of place. Everyone seems to have someone to grieve over, or someone to reunite with. Having neither, she is entirely the outsider. Maybe I shouldn't have come here, she thinks to herself, though the alternative of remaining with the Andalites on Corvus was even more unbearable.

She takes a deep breath and, pushing back her reluctance and dislike of the Andalite, approaches Ossanlin. "Is there anything I can do to help?" she asks.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin notices Lanath approach the nodes from one of his stalk-eyes, but he never removes his main eyes from Myitt.  He returns her gesture, laying a hand on her shoulder.  <I do what I must Myitt, regardless of the price.  I've reached my limit, and the thought that you might be...there...in that place, pained me greatly.  Even the chance that you were there made the decision as simple as it could possibly be.  For myself, at least.  I don't relish living without a government supply line, and the thought of never seeing Home again...>  He grimaces momentarily before getting his features back under control, the uncharacteristic slip as strong as a wail of pain from another person.  <...but we can't look at it like that.  We choose to see it as an opportunity.  Prince Seerow saw great potential...now that my position with the Electorate is nullified, we have the opportunity to see what can be accomplished when our two species actually work together.>  Ossanlin smiles again and nods a bit.  <I think we can build something miraculous from these ashes...as long as all of you are willing to work with Andalites, that is.  The law of Seerow's Kindness no longer governs us, so I hope you don't mind getting tail-deep into the Tyrennian's components.>  He smiles, the hint of a smirk playing at the corner of one eye.  He kneels down again and embraces Tara with Myitt on-board before standing up again.  <It is truly good to see you.  The fact that we're both here, now, in this moment...it must mean something great.>  He smiles a little more broadly as he removes the chip from the recorder assembly and interfaces it with his ARC, giving him an order.  He'd assumed it would just be easier for Ossanlin himself to call out who exactly was dipping their hand into the pool...but perhaps there was some reason he hadn't thought of for the order.

<Keslin wishes to be retrieved first.>  Ossanlin glances at Chris.  <You and he are partners, I assume?>  He nods and waits a moment before addressing those still in the pool.  <Chris is now submersing his hand.>

Ossanlin turns his main eyes back on Myitt.  <As for our destination...it's the Tyrennian.  From there, I was hoping that...you...could provide a heading.  Myitt...some of you must've escaped that attack.  You would've had missions running, and the Electorate couldn't have caught all of you as you fled the base.> 

He glances at Efaen as she speaks, shaking his head at her disparaging attitude toward her true natural form.  It wouldn't do to call her down after she'd sought him out.  <You know many of these individuals better than I.  Make sure the appropriate hosts receive their Yeerks.>

Ossanlin turns his attention back to Myitt, pausing before asking the question he's been dreading.  <Myitt...Reven...sur ely he escaped...?>

[Shenmue654]

Joanne, finally realizing that no opportunity would come that she didn't make herself, wanders close to Ossanlin. A lump forms in her throat. She wasn't a person used to offering gratitude. Since the day when her and Keshin had murdered ten people (Five Yeerks and hosts) and left their station behind, they had done nearly everything alone. It had been several years since then. "Uhm...sir...." she states, her throat catching a bit. Damn nerves.

"List'n..." She keeps eye contact with his front eyes. It was hard not to stare at his stalks, but she'd heard from Kess that it was a gesture of respect. She fidgets with her hair, trying to find the words. "...thanks, Oss.  Without what you did, Kess'd be dead an' me too. Sorry we tried to kill you before. Jus' how things were goin' back then."
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Keshin nods, wavering behind Keslin and Myitt. His heart leaps when he hears his own host made it---there was hope! They both would survive yet another brush with oblivion in the end. The ranking order of host entry is of peculiar convenience to him. It is unlike Myitt One-Nine-Five to show no favoritism to her own band of brigands. Ah well---these were unusual circumstances.

<We will of course join you,> says Keshin with little uncertainty. < The situation has changed. We have greater strength in numbers.>

Keshin notes that Myitt has passed him, but the others have heard. He and Joanne will have their chance very soon.

[Myitt]

"Chris," Myitt breathes, hugging him tightly, eyes momentarily closing in distress. As she pulls back she nods at the pool. "They're alive. As okay as we all can be." Her eyes track blankly. "Tess...and the children, I see they are alright. That's really...****ing good to hear."

She gives Chris a faint smile before turning to Ossanlin, swallowing hard. She hugs him just as tightly when he kneels to embrace her, emotion welling up in her chest again. With a tired sigh she says, "I can't speak for all of us, but I think after what you did? Most of them will be willing to work with you. All of us are beyond words, that this blow should come from your people, and not our own." Again she looks away, expression bleak.

Myitt considers their course, pressing a hand against her forehead. "Chris, you should regain Keslin, and we'll figure out where they were most likely to have gone. The contingency plan spread us out between various rendezvous points, so that no single group of refugees could be easily wiped out. We'll need to see where we are, whether z-space will be shifting, and which will be the closest place to search."

At Ossanlin's last question, she rubs a hand against her mouth, expression haunted.

"Ossanlin...we've lost many good people," she says haltingly. She swallows, shaking her head. "Among them were my brother and his host. Reven and James...we lost them."

In spite of her grief, she is resolute, and moves on to the next task.

Her gaze passes over Joanne briefly, but she sneers when the woman steps close to Ossanlin.

"Turelek," she mutters, not without much gusto. "I might've known you two would survive all this."

The scowl of displeasure deepens into full on ire when Efaen approaches. "And you," she says quietly, coldly, "stay the hell away from him, do you hear me? Dapsen coward."

[Terenia]

Chris pulls away from Myitt reluctantly, nodding. When Ossanlin hugs her his eyes narrow a little suspiciously. His cynicism deteriorates into grief when the conversation turns to James, though, and he pushes aside his suspicions.

"Andalite--Ossanlin--," Chris says, his tongue fumbling over the alien name. "Thank you for everything you've done. Without your help, we'd have been...really ****ed." He sighs, running a hand through his shaggy hair. "I don't know how Keslin will feel about working with an Andalite. Don't know how I feel about it, to be honest, but until we find the others...until Tess is safe..." He glances back at his pregnant partner and shrugs. "We'll do what we can to help."

He dips his hand down into the pool, waiting until one of the Yeerks scrunch-thrusts its way into his waiting palm. His fingers wrap around the creature and he pulls it from the viscous pool liquid, holding him to his ear.


Efaen's eyes widen at Myitt's sharp words, and she takes a step away from her and Ossanlin. "You...you told me..." she stammers. Then she clears her throat and straightens her posture. "You told me when Ossanlin took me from base that if I ever could find my way back, to the base or to the bar, or...anywhere...I was welcome. Are you going to call me a coward just because my way of finding you involved going to that...that place?" She waves her hand vaguely behind her, clearly indicating the facility they just left behind.

She half turns away, her lips pressed together in a thin, angry line. Her next words are delivered to Myitt in sharp, private thought-speak. <<I trusted you. You took my memories from me and I had no reason to, but I still put my trust in you. The Andalites...they treat me like some kind of lunatic for not wanting to be a part of their stupid society with their stupid honor and stupid...I thought maybe you of all people would understand.>>

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin shakes his head a bit.  <They're not my people anymore, Myitt.  At least...not my government.  I still fight for the People...that is my duty and honor, but the corrupt officials of the Electorate will no longer have my blade to wield.  How many times will they sanction genocide?  Alloran-Semitur-Corrass would've returned a "hero" had he not been infested.  I have done what could be done from where I was.  Things have changed, so I'll fight in a different way.>

He glances at Joanne with a stalk-eye, his main eyes widening just a bit.  Mercurial was too weak a word to describe Joanne and Keshin.  <Funny how things change, hmm?  One day you try to kill someone, the next, you owe him your life.  What would've happened had you succeeded back when things were..."going that way?"  Food for thought.>  He pauses a moment before speaking up again.  <You should thank Tara...she had a little something to do with your freedom as well.>  He doesn't mention how he'd considered leaving the turelek duo in that hellish prison...after all, if either Joanne or Keshin was actually capable of displaying even a shred of gratitude or loyalty, it shouldn't be stomped to death out of hand.

Ossanlin moves his main eyes to Chris and nods as the human walks to the pool.  <We'll need everyone in the weeks and months to come.  I hope we can overcome the hardships.  We need all of you as much as you need us...perhaps more...but I'll go over that later.>  As Chris dips his hand into the pool, Ossanlin nods toward Joanne and jerks his head toward the pool.  <You're next.>

He moves his eyes back to Efaen as she and Myitt begin to exchange heated words.  He gives Myitt a piercing look before moving his eyes to Efaen.  Such loyalty in a friend was treasured, but he didn't need Myitt to pick fights in his name.  <I don't know the reason behind accusing her of cowardice, Myitt, but we're going to be stuck together for some time...things will become extremely uncomfortable if we don't at least try to get along.>

He shakes his head at Efaen, addressing her next.  <You don't understand, do you Efaen?  Right now, your best friend on this ship is me, and you scorn that on the face of it.  You have a problem, Efaen...you always want what you can't have...every incarnation of you that I've known has had that problem.  You're more like your old self than you know...the only difference is the shift in your alliance.  You might be more subtle and soft-spoken now...but you have the same drives and ambitions.  I heard what you did to Claxter.  He reached out to you, perhaps the only person on this ship who would.>  He shakes his head.  <Claxter has one of the gentlest souls I've had the pleasure of knowing.  Some people see it as weakness, but it's really just a different kind of strength.  You're so ignorant.  You think that because he befriended you before, he shares your prior self's ideals.  You don't see that he was merely big enough to overlook your old self's failings.  He never accepted them, he saw past them!  He thought, just maybe, he could help you shed all of that hatred and find peace without committing mass murder.  And even now, more than a year after your memory wipe...you still hold all of that hatred, it just has a different target, and it's no more appropriate than the last.  He still wants to help you, and you openly scoff at his offer, instead trying to seek refuge with people who have no desire to associate with you.>  He shakes his head again, fixing Efaen with a disapproving, yet pitying expression before turning his main eyes back to Myitt.

Myitt had ignored his comments about the Tyrennian...that was bad.  He'd hoped it would cheer her up a bit.  An astronomical engineer who didn't at least perk up at the thought of being able to sink her teeth into the pinnacle of space-faring technology was an engineer in dire straits.  Her words about Reven send a numb shock through him.  <Yaolin...>  The Andalite obscenity sounds odd coming from him.  He looks off to the side with his main eyes, shaking his head.  <You're certain?  Of course you are, you wouldn't have said so if you weren't.>  He curses again internally, not only for the loss of a friend, but for the added problems his loss portents.  He returns his main eyes to Myitt before speaking again.  <Myitt...I'm so sorry.  If...since Reven is no longer with us...I hate to be callous, but who will take over?>

[Myitt]

Myitt stares at Efaen, too distracted at first to properly answer Ossanlin. Her eyes narrow for the briefest of seconds as Efaen's voice fills Myitt's own mind.

"How do we know you weren't an instrument in all this?" she asks, with the same cold weariness that seems to be the most anger she can muster.

Eager to pull away from the Andalite who had impersonated her brother's host, but loath to let Efaen out of her sight, she turns hesitantly to Ossanlin.

"I don't trust her," Myitt says succinctly, pressing her lips into a thin line and lifting herself lightly on her toes as she tries to suppress her irritation. "But I will work with her. For all our sake."

At the mention of Reven again she can't help but let her gaze wander to Chris' back. "I don't know who will take over," she admits with a sigh, "but we will need to find some semblance of unity. All of us. We can grieve later, when we find James' and Reven's wife and daughter, and Mike and Corliss, anyone else we can manage." The pang of uncertainty that hits her, not knowing whether her closest friends and family are even alive to be found, makes her stomach churn uncomfortably.

Now she looks over her shoulder towards the main cabin, where for the first time it truly sinks in that she is alive, and her friends are dead, and an unknown number of others are missing, and she is surrounded by Andalites who may or may not have any love for Yeerks and their host counterparts.

Her hands clench into fists at her sides, but she tries for a smile. "Tara says you're the boss, for now. Until we can regroup. I'm personally inclined to agree."

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin looks at the floor with his main eyes for a few moments.  <Myitt...it might be best for now, but...>  He falls silent for a few moments.  <I can't possibly understand your people, or the pain you're going through.  I've left my home behind, and the thought of never seeing the suns rising again pains me to my bones, but all of you left your homes long ago.  On top of that, you've now lost so many...>  He shakes his head again.  <Your people have no reason to trust me.  I wouldn't ask them to, not before it's earned.>

<We'll need to find the rest of your people...for now, I need your help.  I'll consider you as in charge of the rebels for the time being.>  He sighs heavily.  <Either way, we all need each other.  I only have a skeleton crew left aboard the Tyrennian, Myitt...I won't be able to keep her running for long without help.>  He shakes his head.  <But that's talk for later.  We're all rebels now, of one kind or another.>

[Myitt]

Myitt's eyes widen at Ossanlin's affirmation of her leadership. She swallows again, Tara's throat painfully dry.

"Yeah," she croaks, smiling sadly. "I guess we all are."

She turns her attention to watching Chris and Keslin reunite, unable to help wondering how Daniel is doing, and eager to have him reunited with the Yeerk she cares so much about.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin notes the widening of Myitt's eyes.  <I don't want your people to think they've escaped one prison for another, Myitt.  They trust you...it is my desire that you may allay their fears.  Perhaps if they see you trusting me, they will come to trust me as well.  It will take time and effort from all of us.  I have thoughts...plans... but for now, they're nebulous.  Finding the rest of your people is top-priority.>  He glances at Chris and Keslin too, a prime example of the type of reception he expects from most rebels...grudging gratitude mixed with 'I'll trust you as far as I need to, but I make no promises.'