[Exalted Side Thread] A Little Lintha Insurance

[SalmonMax]

Dan Hawkins, once known as Nova in a previous age of wonders, was right in the middle of his exercises and training when his commlink signaled a message from Kestrel, of all people. Notoriously hard to find or reach, now she wanted to talk to him about something.

When he picked up, she was straight to the point, "Captain, do you have a few minutes?" her voice said in his ear.

[Dan Hawkins]

"I do, where would you like to meet, Kestrel?" He was abit perplexed, this was extremely unusual for Kestrel, and he didn't hide his surprise. He grabbed a towel as he waited for her reply. When he turned around, it wouldn't have surprised him to see her standing in the doorway, if he was being honest..

[SalmonMax]

He wasn't disappointed. The door swished open and she was there, her purple hair still hanging limp and wet around her face, and smelling faintly of 'shower.'

"Somewhere secure," she replied. "This needs to be in absolute confidence."

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan looked at her and nodded. "Well we're in the mountain, ostensibly everywhere and nowhere is perfectly secure. Saying that, nothing can bar the path of a celestial exalted for long if they don't allow it. That said, my own chambers here are probably the most secure."

,,

From anyone else it might have been an invitation for more. "Come with me then, I believe we will have our security there." He smiled. "You may wish to finish drying yourself first though, tongues will wag all the more if people were to see us entering together as we are." He was drying himself, his own workouts always left him sweaty by the end as he pushed his endurance to its limit.

[SalmonMax]

Kestrel smirked. "Are you trying to protect my reputation, or yours? Anyway, I'm dry enough. I hate blow drying. It cracks the coloring gel, makes it wear off faster."

"Besides...I love tongues. Especially when they wag."

She follows Dan through the ship as she teases him, heading for his cabin.

[Dan Hawkins]

Once inside he closed the door nd turned on a small whitenoise generator to give them privacy. "Anyone listening in will here only static. I'd say it would be your reputation I'm guarding, though with your past, it may be a bit of both, considering how normally we'd be on opposite sides."

,,

He shrugged and indicated for her to take a seat, while he did the same, taking the seat from his desk, a stiff-backed metal chair. "Now what exactly would you like to speak with me about Kestrel?"

,,

He nodded. "Here it's just Nova, as I suspect this is something important enough that it goes beyond simple shipmate responsibility."

[SalmonMax]

"Mmm," Kestrel agreed, and put her hands on her hips. No beating around the bushes then.

,,

"I want to hide a bomb on the Lintha ship, in case they get any not so bright ideas. They're packing at least two heavy anti-capital ship torpedo launchers on that thing, which means there must be a munitions bay buried deep inside it somewhere. A plasma charge of any decent output placed in the right spot in there would set off a chain reaction that'd devastate their ship. At the very least knock it out of action...probably destroy it."

[Dan Hawkins]

"More dangerous than that, they have two Infernals, assuming Janos remains aboard that ship to keep a watch on them."

,,

He speared her with a steely gaze. "I'm willing to bet that you could get on and plant such a device, but could you guarantee it wouldn't be found? Because if it was, they'd turn on us in a heartbeat, likely at the worst possible time."

,,

"I do not like having them with us, but it is better than against us." He wasn't lying, he simply didn't do that. "I could get such a device easy enough, but another thing to consider, the Senior marshals have granted dispensation to them. To Janos, and to the other infernal, hell they let Janos into the mountain, That very much surprised me.."

[SalmonMax]

She frowned. "Janos is going to be on the ship, not ours?"

,,

That set her back for a moment, then she shrugged. "I can't guarantee anything. I can get it on, I can find a good place for it. It's not too likely they'll find it unless they do a very thorough sweep of the munitions bay."

,,

Kestrel turned away and walked to the porthole to look out at the stars in space.

,,

"So you're saying not to. If they turned on us, Janos would have to get out fast. Assuming he wasn't in on it."

[Dan Hawkins]

"Those who can see the weavings of Fate have decided to trust him greatly, and so far they have not led me astray thus far."

,,

"It isn't alot to go on Kestrel, but it's my hope that their faith is rewarded. He is a masterful craftsman, and so far, has done nothing to show himself to be untrue to his stated intent."

,,

"I ordered him to Neutralize the Lintha Ship, he did so. Not in the most conventional manner, but he did so, and we didn't have to fight them. We'd have never salvaged what we did if they'd been fighting us, and the Empire would have come in and done who knows what seeing such an engagement.

,,

He shook his head. "I think, also I knew who he was, Before." he sighed, and his tone indicated this meant in a much earlier incarnation.

[SalmonMax]

Kestrel scowls.

,,

"It doesn't matter who he was before," she says darkly. "And did it occur to you that those who see Fate ALSO decided to put him on a crew with me on it? Dyna mentioned that. They could have picked a crew I wasn't on...or assigned me to someone else."

,,

She looks over her shoulder at Dan, a little curious despite herself.

,,

"Who was he?"

[Dan Hawkins]

"If he was who I'm thinking he was, he was an Artisan without peer. He could fashion a ship like the VoidSwimmer in a Day, purely from the Energies around him. His works were beautiful and terrible, Things that make a Soulbreaker look like a trinket. He got out of hand, and died before the war's end, a victim of his own technology. The system where he died doesn't exist anymore, but it was known as Hercalaneum." There was alot more to that story, as his tone saddened.

,,

"I want to believe that you were put here because you could do the most good here, whether it is to keep us all honest, and to help us accomplish our tasks. Janos, for the same reason, and on a lighter note, because no other crew would have him. We certainly almost didn't."

[SalmonMax]

If Dan had hoped to enhance Kestrel's view of the situation, telling her his suspicions of Janos' past life probably wasn't the best place to start. She frowned a little as he spoke, clearly troubled, then turned to look out the window again.

,,

She was quiet for a little too long to be just a conversational pause, then asked in a rush, "How does it work? These...things in us. The 'exaltations.' I mean...I know they have some kind of memory of things, but...I'm still me. I remember how I was before, and...I'm still that person. Right?"

[Dan Hawkins]

"You are." His tone darkened. "Not all are so."

,,

"Some remember the first age, but only in bits and pieces. Some remember it very well." He sighed. "Others, well, are the exception. My exaltation is unique, it suppresses the current host soul." He speared her with his gaze. "The First Age is my memory, and Memory of what I was once, spur me on to be such again. I remember who you were, back then, Karren, even Sophia.. This is Why Noble Endeavor and I get on well, to her though the vessel has changed, I am still Nova Corona."

,,

He shrugged. "Daniel is still within, forming the core of my attachment to Althea, though in a twist that Dren must love, her exaltation belonged to my former Sidreal advisor..."

,,

"The Circle turns onward, and some things that were before, are coming to pass again."

[SalmonMax]

Kestrel blew air out her nose in a moment of frustration.

,,

"Do you even hear what you're saying?" she asked tartly. "Yes, you're still you...but I remember you from centuries ago."

,,

She glared at him. "Whoever that was, it wasn't me. It's a hitchhiker. I mean, it's paying its way; I'm not complaining about it. But you can't have it both ways. I wasn't born then, it was. So either I'm still me, and its not and what you remember was someone else...or it's taking over my mind, erasing who I was, and turning me into whoever you knew then."

,,

"Which, by the way, I am not in favor of. No offense, but ending up in your condition is just about the worst thing I can think of."

[Dan Hawkins]

He shrugged. "It isn't so bad, it just takes getting used to not having world-cracking power at my fingertips again. With the number of times it has happened, it's almost routine now."

,,

"What I mean is you Are Kestrel, who you are now, but I remember a previous incarnation of your exaltation, who was my Circlemate. While you are similar, you are not the same. I assure you, you should not end up as I am, and I am glad for that."

[SalmonMax]

Kestrel absorbed that meditatively, then nodded and looked back out the window.

,,

"What was she like? The...old one. The one that had this exaltation before me."

[Dan Hawkins]

"In our youth, she was happy, carefree, and always sought out the next thrill. She was loyal to a fault, and believed the best in people. Curiosity was her biggest vice, and more than once it caused problems for the entire circle. Times were simple, and we all grew together, coming into power you cannot imagine. She could make shadow when she wished, and needed nothing to not be sensed. It was a marvel to watch her perfection of grace, and made me proud that even among here caste, she had very few equals." He smiled, but it definitely wasn't Dan, but Nova's. "Then there was the War, a horror that changed us all. She wasn't carefree, and happiness only found her when she rode the edge. No High was enough, no subject taboo. She had to know everything, and no cost was unpayable. She trusted no one, least of all her circlemates, as we knew her secrets."

,,

He sighed. "I lost touch with her after the War, but I heard many dark rumors. Thankfully the worst seem to be untrue, as you are not like him."

,,

"I do not know if she was your only incarnation, I've yet to have a time where the entire Circle was once again present. I would like such a thing, if only for the shared memories."

,,

"The past is not a curse, but a history of our failures, and our great Triumphs. There is much we know now that we do not know, but once did."

,,

He speared her with his own gaze. "I think some of her curiosity lives on in you, as Thieves have always struck me as a curious breed of people. Many value secrets, stolen from the greatest vault, or the tiny little hidden safe, more than jade, orihalchum, or any precious stone. It is not a failing to be curious, suspicious, or wary. It is part of human nature."

,,

"I do not want you to place a bomb aboard the Lintha ship. Assuming we keep the Battlecruiser, we will have more than sufficient power to sunder them to atoms if the need arises, but despite what Janos is, I want to hope he is more than the madness infecting him."

,,

"It may be foolish trying to find the good in him, but I am trusting in you to watch him, and to watch my back Kestrel, and everyone else. If it comes to the worst, Do what you feel must be done."

[SalmonMax]

Kestrel was silent during Dan's...or was it Nova's...talk, staring out the window and letting the words sink in. The memories were there, swirling around in that ball of energy that sat inside her. She could feel them stirring, and resolutely pushed them down, pushed them away. That wasn't her. She'd take what it offered, but not at that cost.

,,

With a quick pivot away from the subject of the bomb, she focused instead on one little thing he'd said that piqued her attention.

,,

"Him who?"

,,

She turned away from the window and looked at Dan, who was giving her a quizzical shrug.

,,

"You said I wasn't like him. Who is him? It's not whoever had this thing before me, because you called her 'she.' So who is it that it's such a relief I'm not like?"

[Dan Hawkins]

"You are not like Janos."

,,

"There were dark rumors that my former circlemate sold herself to our fallen foes, in her pursuit of greater secrets. That she bound her will to her exaltation, that it would serve the darkness."

,,

"I am relieved that this isn't true, for at least in this respect, we are the same, we fight against the Darkness that threatens reality itself. Heretic though he is, Janos will not cannot understand that that otherness regarding his very essence forever sets him apart. He likely does not care, but I do, and I am comforted to have you, one who bears the exaltation of a former circlemate, with me. Even if you had no similarities, It would likely still be so."

[SalmonMax]

Kestrel smirks.

,,

"Well, I don't serve the darkness, but I can't claim to be a shiny hero of light either. Anyway, sorry to say it, but she sounds like a real bitch, Dan. Guess it's a good thing I don't go diving into her head."

,,

She stretches her arms over her, doing interesting things to the slinky jumpsuit she wore, then gave Dan a smile.

,,

"All right. I guess I have my answer then. I'll leave you to...whatever it is you do when you're not working out or training. Seeya."

,,

And with that the thief turned and headed for the door out.

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan nodded. "Enjoy yourself Kestrel, we will be on duty again soon enough, and it will be more arduous than last time."

,,

He watched her go, and sat back, looking at the wall and closing his eyes, Remembering.

,,

He saw a group of five young people, bright and full of hope, setting off on a grand quest, and he smiled. It was a simpler happier time, and for only a moment, he had been allowed to recapture a little of that feeling again.