Posted by Lieutenant Commander Faye Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Elsewhere- A Honeymoon

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Daggum Hammor (Chief Operations Officer) in Elsewhere- A Honeymoon

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Faye Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Elsewhere- A Honeymoon

(snip)

Kodell took in Daggum and gave a tiny nod. “I know,” he said, matching pitch. “She always had this insatiable curiosity. I knew right away that it could never be fully satisfied. The best I could do was give her access to whatever knowledge piqued her interest that day or week.”

Meanwhile, Faye was moving across the expansive mosaic floor, the colourful tiles creating a geometric pattern- cascading lines in indigo, mustard and olive. Reaching the curved staircase that went up to the mezzanine level. Her hand ran up the polished wood banister, the sensation so very familiar. She had polished this feature herself many times, not so much as a requirement of her work, but more so she had an excuse to be in this space, often near Kodell. People wouldn’t question her cleaning and she could admit even now that she had taken special delight in dusting the books and sitting area.

Reaching the top of the stairs, two overstuffed armchairs sat in front of a large bow window with a little table in between. Suddenly she could vividly remember the feeling of sitting in Kodell’s lap, of all those stolen moments. And it wasn’t painful. Curious.

Looking down, the two Orion men were fixed in her gaze. One her past, who confused her but also brought joy and light into a time of darkness. The other was her present and future, the person who help all the parts of her with incredible tenderness and love. Someone else might be worried about how this could all go, but suddenly she wasn’t. But still there were things to say here that needed to be said. Or rather pieces of the puzzle that had to be put into place.

“I know that look,” Kodell said with a smirk, gazing up as he and Daggum approached the stairs. “Dare I ask what you’re pondering?”

For a moment Faye shifted her gaze to her husband, drinking him in. Then she smiled at him before looking at Kodell. “Too many things,” she replied at length. “And I know we just suddenly dropped in without warning, but do you have time to talk?”

Kodell smiled and nodded. “Give me a few minutes to attend to one thing and I’ll meet you both in the atrium. Access is still the same.” With a bow of his head, Kodell stepped away, leaving Faye and Daggum in the Library alone.

“Well?” she said.

~Faye

Daggum looked up at her for a long moment and then made his way up to her. “That family crest… I know it. Took me a minute to remember from where.” and he sat heavily in one of the chairs. “You know that one rock in my gear bag? Where I keep all my… stuff… from when I was fighting? Did I ever tell you about it? What it means?”

Daggum

“Not specifically no,” Faye said, joining him in the other chair. Again that weird sense of dissociation appeared again, but she didn’t leave. She was grounded here with him even as her memories drifted elsewhere. There was also a strange sense of foreboding at the mention of the crest, but well, she couldn’t do much about what Kodell’s family might or might not have done over the years.

~Faye

Daggum took her hand in his and he leaned back, his eyes looking far into the past. “We weren’t close… the fighters, that is… at least not often. It was kind of pointless to become friends with somebody you might have had to kill the next day. But I had a friend… and we did become close. I mean, we were kids, so we ached for companionship no matter what. But the fighters were rarely there long… either sold to other groups or cities… or they just didn’t make it long enough. Anyway, Sek and I did become friends… and something of a pair in the Pit as well. They’d put us together and have us face off against bigger animals or groups of other fighters. And we always held our own, he and I. They even put us in cages next to one another for awhile. That lasted… maybe a year? Year and a half? Every couple of weeks they’d trot us out and we’d fight tooth and nail against whatever they threw at us.” Daggum took a deep breath and was silent a for a moment.

“Then one day, Sek was gone. Sold, I heard the Pit Boss say. Rich family wanted a pet fighter, so off he went. I was sad, but it happened… I kinda expected it. Didn’t see Sek for about three months… then one day I step in the Pit and there he is.” Daggum looked at Faye, the smoldering anger he reserved for slavers and others like them in his eyes.

“Seems his new owner wanted to see who was the better of the two of us. So they had arraigned it so we had to fight each other. Now, it was most common for those fights - ones where people had invested lots of cash in the kid fighters- to be to first blood or whoever quit first. But not this time… seems like the bookies wanted to make some fat cash, so Sek’s owners had made it a death match.” and his jaw clenched and gold tears welled up in his eyes before being stifled back down.

“That rock in my bag? That’s what I used to kill my best friend. Caved his skull in from ten meters away. It was the only revenge I could have at the time. I knew Sek wouldn’t kill me, he didn’t have that in him. And if he had, it would have broken him and he wouldn’t have lasted another month. So… I grabbed that rock off the ground and I threw at him right as the gong sounded.” He leaned back and closed his eyes for a moment. “My fastest fight. Over in less than five seconds.” and he was silent for a long moment before opening his eyes and looking at Faye. “That crest? That’s the family who bought Sek. That’s the family that made children kill one another. Your guy Kodell probably has the record of that fight in here somewhere…” Daggum said softly as he looked around the room before looking back at Faye. “And don’t worry. I’m not gonna lose my shit on him.” and he smiled a melancholy smile and then looked around the room. “Might ask him if he knew who in his family did that, though…” he said wistfully.

Daggum