Chương 198: Nova Wars - Chapter 154

To understand what it is like to live on Terra for longer than 24 hours and outside of your diplomatic or species area just put yourself inside a tornado and hold on. I love it. - Lecture to Gradauting Class 8, 741 by Dreams of Something More, Mantid Diplomat, Confederate Diplomatic Services, Second Precursor War. Wrixet jumped up, catching the heavy metal orb. It hard enough that it almost drove the breath from his chest despite his padding. He pulled it close, landed hard, but still took off at a sprint.

He had the orb tucked close, was bent slightly, his other arm straight out. Imna appeared in his vision, veering in front of him, one of her shoulders down as she smashed aside a larger Telkan. A Telkan in armor slammed Imna out of the way but Imna managed to tangle her legs in the other Telkan's and they both crashed to the ground and rolled away. Wrixet slammed to Telkan from in front of him, grunted as someone hit him, causing him to spin in place but he got his balance and kept charging forward.

The hit from the side made his eyes bug out and drove the breath from his body. He tried to spin out of it, but arms were wrapped around him and pulled him to the ground. He got the orb out, held it as far as he could, and slammed it to the ground. It was just on the other side of the chalk line.

"TOUCHDOWN!" roared over the speaker. Wrixet rolled over, staring up at the sky. It was blue, sapphire blue, with streaks of white clouds. A few birds crossed his vision as he gasped for air. The other Telkan, wearing red and white armor compared to Wrixet's black and green armor, stood up then held his hand down to Wrexit.

"Nice run," the other Telkan said. Wrixet accepted the helping hand that heaved him to his feet. He pressed one hand to his ribs and winced slightly.

"You hit like a grav-fist," Wrexit said.

"Born and raised in one gee," the other Telkan said.

"Mom and my Broodmommies made sure I had the DNA tweaks to make it easier on me." Wrexit shook his head.

"Man, wish I had them. Must be nice." The other Telkan shrugged.

"I don't notice it most of the time. You could go to a Clone My Shit Up and see if you can get the mods." Wrexit nodded, chewing on the mouthguard, thinking hard. The idea of genetic tweaks to a Telkan was almost abhorrent. He had been raised that genetics should never be touched and despite some disinformation to the contrary, 90% of all higher life forms like Telkan couldn't accept genetic tweaks without severe damage to the genome. The buzzer sounded as Wrixet stood there for a long moment.

"Game's over," the other Telkan said. He slugged Wrixet in the shoulder, his reinforced knuckle gloves thumping against the plasteel shoulder guard.

"Come on. My parents are right there." It was weird, almost. Wrixet was actually younger than the age of majority in the Telkan Systems, just like the Telkani he was following, just like most of the Telkan he'd been playing Hammerball with. He just felt, inside, older. The Telkani he was following waved as four figures stood up and started moving forward. A Telkani, a Telkana, and...... and...... two broodcarriers. Wrixet wasn't aware that he had stopped. That he was staring.

They were fluffy, sleek looking, with wide expressive eyes and long fluffy tails that were held in front of their chests. He could see little noses and eyes peeking out from the sleek fur of the left hand one. Their ears flicked, rotating, delicate looking in the sunlight. Their noses were black and damp looking. Their hands were covered in soft fur and looked gentle. They were smiling. Like they were smiling at him. Like nobody in the world deserved those smiles quite like he did. They were looking at him.....

and...... and...... they were...... they were...... smiling like they loved him. Wrixet just stared, his vision tunneling down to the two smiling broodcarriers. The thunder of his own heartbeat and the hurricane of his own breathing mixed with some kind of rushing sound, some kind of high pitched keening sound. His chest suddenly hurt, like he'd been shot, or stabbed. Everything was going gray with sparkles. One of the broodcarriers gave a chirp of alarm, rushing forward on all fours.

It stood up on its back feet and held its arms out. Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators! Everything started to spin. The broodcarrier grabbed onto Wrixet as his knees gave out, as his body suddenly folded.

'easy breathe breathe is ok is all right' the broodcarrier said, squeezing gently. it was... was... hugging him! The broodcarrier held him up, then slowly lowered him down to the grass.

'breathe just breathe is all right you are all right' the broodcarrier was saying softly. It was touching him! It had hugged him! A broodcarrier had touched him! Had hugged him. Him. Imna saw Wrixet go down and ran over towards him, pulling her helmet off as she ran. The broodcarrier was touching all over him, undoing the chinstrap for his helmet. She got there just as the helmet came off and saw his eyes were open. He was breathing rapidly and shivering slightly.

The broodcarrier was murmuring soft words to him and patting him.

"Easy, Wrixet, easy," Imna said, taking his hand.

"It's just a broodcarrier. You're all right." Wrixet blinked several times, gave a wordless cry of loss and joy, and wrapped his arms around the broodcarrier, laughing and sobbing at the same time. He buried his face in the broodcarrier's pelt, and Imna could see his shivering intensify.

"Is he OK? What's happening?" the other Telkan asked. Imna could see the married couple and the other broodcarrier hustling forward.

"He's never seen a broodcarrier this close," Imna said. The male and female stopped.

"What?" the female asked.

"He's never seen a broodcarrier this close. He mentioned to me once that he's never touched one or been touched by one since the creche," Imna said. She rubbed the top of Wrixet's head, between his ears.

"He's from the lower castes, from what he's told me."

"Castes?" the male Telkan said, his voice a scratchy rumble.

"There's castes on Telkan?" Imna nodded.

"Yes. The lower income still have to provide two children, but use public broodcarriers. The children are turned back over to the parents within 72 hours of birth." The female gasped, her hand going to the end of her muzzle.

"Public... broodcarriers?" Imna nodded, still rubbing Wrixet's head. He had completely relaxed and Imna suspected that the emotional overload had knocked him out. A medic ran up, shouldering Imna out of the way without speaking, running a scanner over the fallen Telkan.

"Severe shock," the medic said.

"I'm going to give him a mood stabilizer. Are you related?" the medic asked without looking up.

"In the same unit," Imna said. She realized she had no idea what to do. Following the limited trained she had ungrone she touched her implant.

"Private Imna to the Nell. Imna to Nell."

"Nell here, go ahead, Imna," Mister Enduring said. Then he whispered.

"I shall find you and kill you." Imna was used to the crazed DS's threats. They were mostly due to his enraged status, so Imna didn't take it personally.

"Wrixet's down. Psychological shock. Please advise," she said.

"His biometrics agree. Private Wrixet is in shock," There was silence.

"Define shock event."

"A broodcarrier encounter," Imna said.

"There's a medic here." The broodcarrier was still comforting Wrixet.

"I have alerted the Captain and the XO. Accompany him to wherever the medic recommends," Enduring Hateful Code said. He paused.

"I... I hope... I hope he recovers," the Digital Sentience grated out.

"Then I will kill him," was the whisper at the end as the enragement took back over.

"Nell, out."

"Imna, out," she moved her fingers.

"You said that he has never encountered a broodcarrier?" the female asked.

"Holograms, I think," Imna said.

"I don't think he's ever been this close."

"That's... monstrous," the male said. He reached out and hugged the broodcarrier that was holding the little podlings.

"Wait, mandatory breeding?" Imna nodded.

"Yes. Every family must have at least two children minimum. Some regions there must be at least one male."

"What if they're both broodcarriers?" the female asked.

"Um... I don't know," Imna admitted.

"Uh... you know, it never really dawned on me that broodcarriers were part of that or where they came from." The male blinked several times.

"Why not?" Imna shrugged.

"Not sure. I mean, I had a broodcarrier with my family. Most of my peers and schoolmates did too. I never really thought about the whole public broodcarrier thing." The female knelt down, touching the unconcious Wrixet gently.

"He's never been touched? Never been embraced?" The medic looked up.

"We're going to transfer him to a psychiatric clinic. He needs help," the Telkan said. The younger male, still in his sport gear, looked at Imna.

"I didn't mean... I... I didn't..."

"It's OK," Imna said, standing up. She put her hand on his forearm.

"It's been a hard time. A rough war." The older male, the father, looked up.

"War?" Imna nodded.

"We're conscripts. Captain Decken saved us. Our transport his a shade patch before it docked with the non-orbital base," she shivered.

"Only three of us survived the initial," she rubbed between Wrixet's ears.

"Just me and him are left." The male stood up.

"We'll go with you to the clinic," he said.

"Do you mind if we ask a few questions?" the female asked. Imna shook her head.

"No. I'll answer what I can."

"Good. I really want some answers," the female said. 0-0-0-0-0 Wrixet opened his eyes slowly. He'd been having a wonderful dream where he and Naxen were being cuddled by broodcarriers who were telling them that none of what they had done to survived mattered. That the broodcarriers were here now, so everything would be all right. He could still smell the broodcarrier that had hugged him. Imna was sitting next to him, palm turned up and reading a hologram. Her other hand was wrapped around his, holding it tightly.

"What happened?" he asked, licking his lips. His mouth was dry.

"Broodcarrier hugged you and you passed out from joy," Imna said.

"Doc gave you a shot of mood stabilizers. Captain came by, said to contact Mister Enduring if there's any problem, otherwise we're supposed to continue our shore leave."

"I feel stupid," Wrixet said.

"Why?" Imna asked.

"I fainted. Like some kid at a bop concert," Wrixet closed his eyes.

"Straw," Imna said. He opened his eyes and saw that Imna had a glass with a bent straw. He took a couple of pulls off it, wetting his mouth. It tasted delicious.

"Thanks," he said.

"Dee's Nada," she said, shrugging. She pulled it back.

"I had an interesting hour or so."

"What?" Wrixet asked, sitting up.

"The couple whose matched with the broodcarriers are apparently from before The Bagging. We're talking survived the Lanaktallan Occupation and all of that stuff," Imna said. Wrixet wriggled his toes inside the grippy socks, then bent down to take them off. Imna put his boots and socks next to him, lifting them from where they were sitting with his military uniform and his pads.

"OK. And?" Wrixet asked, pulling on his socks.

"They aren't happy. Apparently he's like a General or something with the old Telkan Marines," Imna said.

"His wife is a gestalt analytics manager, whatever that means. It's something to do with the smaller gestalt for our people they had here in The Bag."

"What are they going to do about any of it?" Wrixet asked, pulling on his boots. He yanked the speed laces hard, then wrapped them around his leg.

"I'm not sure. They want us both to come by his office. The Captain gave the go-ahead," Imna said.

"It's not going to matter," Wrixet said. He jumped down and took a second to stomp his feet to get his boots in place. He looked at her.

"Nothing ever changes for the better." Imna watched as he gathered up his stuff.

"It will. You'll see," she said.

"You'll see that this all will mean something."

"Not for people like me and Naxen."