Through the Looking Glass: Chapter Two

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As soon as Kaylr rolled over, Merith pounced again, going to bash his head with a swift kick from the side.

"I'm told this universe's Satare colonies are nice." Esk remarked casually.

"You mean not warmongering xenophobic assholes?" Matt corrected him.

"Peaceful accepting and full of happy singing children and bunny rabbits from what I hear." Esk smirked.

"The Imperium isn't full of assholes." Luka protested.

Matt looked like he didn't believe her.

"Talk to Stellan about it." Esk suggested.

"I still find it weird to hear you casually refer to him by your own name." Matt told his brother.

Esk shrugged. "Not my name though is it?"

Matt sighed.

"We could go chill with the snuggly Satare until we can get home," Ellie said happily. "Yay tall people!"

Dawn chuckled at that and looked to Ellie "That sounds nice, but it wouldn't really help us, would it?"

"We can summon a Creator to us to get home. They're magic, they can teleport to us and save us some travel time," Ellie said.

Matt shuddered. "gods... "

"like it or not, we probably will have to kiss the arse of some cosmic power to get back home." Esk told them.

"And here I am without any lip salve. " Luka rolled her eyes.

"I wonder what the Reich's like here though..." Matt mused. "no lycanthropy... no anti alien attacks, no wars... no munitions factories!"

"no defenses." Esk shrugged.

Ellie raised her hand, "Well they will have one of those things when we get there." It was supposed to be a joke. It probably wasn't a good one.

Matt patted her on the shoulder. "It's okay, we'll fix it."

"You probably have a week before you start showing symptoms, then you'll go nuts. two, maybe three weeks, you two will be trying to rip our throats out with your teeth." Esk spoke in that bored, detatched way of his.

"Not helping." Matt hissed.

"What? You want to just lie and tell them they'll magically be okay? Give them some credit Matt, they're not that stupid."

Luka lowered her head.

"Which." Esk continued "Is precisely why we don't have TIME to muck about with freeing androids or resettling slaves or any of that. We need to make contact with someone who can get us out of here and fast. The more time we waste, the less chance there is of that dragon friend of yours figuring out a cure in time. "

Ellie glared at Esk. "We KNOW lycanthropy is some bad stuff. Geez." She thought for a bit, "A good reason to take this Vestia until we can get home, is cause she has facilities to help Starr study lycanthropy. Until we get back to our universe, this is the best place to keep us alive."

"nice strong cages, a lot of sedatives." Esk agreed. "And no, you don't appreciate how bad it is Ellie. Do you know what I did before I left the empire for good? I hunted infected. I have seen first hand what happens to them, and what they do to other people. You can read all you want, it's never going to be quite as educational as seeing it first hand. And don't think just because there's no moon here you're safe, you aren't. You brain will still rot, your body will still shut down, it's just gonna take longer. "

Matt frowned. "How do you know that?"

"They did studies on the outer colonies Matt. Jess has been following all of it for years, she's desperate for a cure, convinced it's possible if only she had the right things. Kay's blood being one of them, but of course he always objected to being used as a lab rat right?" He rolled his eyes. "Wonder how the dragon convinced him. "

"Get to the point!" Matt snapped.

"point is, they watched them on the outer colonies, on space stations, trying to figure out what effect the moons actually had. People still went crazy, they still died in agony. It just took months instead of weeks. Staying in space won't save them, we need a cure. "

"Well we have a fully stocked lab here! Starr can work on it while we search for a way home." Matt looked optimistic.

"IF we can gain control of this ship. She may have the loyalty of the guards for now, but for how long? And can they really take out the captain? It's not safe here, we don't even know how loyal the ship herself is. Once we work out how to get that collar off her, how do we know she won't cut life support and open all the airlocks on us? We need to get home."

"We'll figure it out." Matt nodded. "We'll figure something out. We always do."

"And if you don't, don't worry girls, I won't let you hurt anyone else." Esk nodded.

Luka nodded back. They'd already made this deal.

"Don't you dare shoot them" Matt snapped.

Esk shrugged.

"You must be fun at parties," Ellie told Esk, glaring. Still, he did make a valid point, and she reluctantly nodded. "We're working off a lot of 'ifs' here, and we're going to need all our stupid luck to get though. If things look bad, yeah, put a bullet in my head. Either when I start trying to bite, or when the pain gets to be too much. But NOT sooner, okay?"

Esk nodded. "I won't shoot you until you're a real threat. "

"Nobody is shooting anyone." Matt huffed, getting up. "I'm gonna talk to starr." He stalked off to find her and have a chat.

Esk shook his head. "He's in a terrible mood." He remarked casually.

"Thanks, man, that means a lot," Ellie nodded. "I don't wanna die, but I also don't wanna make anyone else die, you know?" She watched Matt leave, "Yeah, he's at the end of his rope I think. Too much stress, too many people hurt, and he always feels so obligated to help people, which is sweet, but not that great for him." She sighed.

Esk nodded and sat back down. "Always and forever taking care of anyone but himself. " He shrugged.

Ellie nodded sadly. "He's such a good guy, it stinks to see him like this."
She looked at Luka. "Hey, since we're kinda bound by blood and xenophobic pasts now, wanna be buddies?"

Luka smiled oddly. "Xenophobic pasts?" She shook her head. "I don't think that's entirely fair. People like him" she pointed at Esk "Still served in our military."

"And they treated me like shit." Esk told her matter of factly.

"Sure that was because of your race and not just because you're an asshole?" Luka countered.

Esk snickered.

"I'll miss you both I think." He nodded to himself.

Ellie grinned. "Hey, I'm not judging! People from my religious sect move away whenever too many non-humans move into the neighborhood. Our long and tragic exodus from Terra, hounded eternally by aliens, and always seeking a way to return home..." She snorted. It all sounded a lot sillier these days, especially when said in a room positively brimming with aliens.
She smirked at Esk. "I'll be sure to come haunt you sometimes. Rearrange your stuff, make spooky noises. Okay?"

"What a shame we don't believe in spirits." Esk shook his head.

"That sounds silly." Luka told her with a smile. "We defend our home from aliens, which makes far more sense. Though, i've come to realise that not ALL aliens are awful. Just... some of them." She pointed at Esk

Esk smirked.

"Well some sects do defend their territory too. They tend to get busted for it, because they want to claim new land, and terrorism sucks," Ellie said. "I'm not a xenophobe any more! I have alien friends!" Then she burst into giggles at her joke.

"Yeah, they aren't all bad. Some of you are quite nice." Luka didn't get the joke, but she smiled anyway.

Ellie smiled. "Oh hey, I totally still have my omnicom. Wanna watch sappy romance movies and cry about hot guys until we're needed?"

"Sappy romance movies?" Luka laughed. "You know what, if they're hot and shirtless, i'm IN!"

"yeah i'm out." Esk edged away.

"Awww come on Esk, sometimes I think you protest too much" Luka teased him.

Esk shook his head. "No, secure and happy being straight thanks. Don't need to see topless men to confirm it."

Luka laughed.

"Aww, we could totally watch one where the woman gets shirtless too," Ellie suggested. She seriously doubted Esk would have any interest in watching romance movies regardless, though.

"I'll leave you to it, maybe my brothers will watch with you. They're the sappy in touch with their emotions sorts." He scoffed and got up to leave.

"your loss!" Luka called, then whispered to Ellie "He's just cranky because he can't snuggle up to someone while watching movies." She nodded. "I'd feel sorry for him, but he's a dick about it so... yeah. Screw him."

Ellie looked a bit sad at that thought, then cheered up a bit. "Hey, just means we can invite somebody else. Who do you think would want to see a really cheesy love story?"

"What about Matt when he comes back? He looked like he could do with a hug and some distraction right?" Luka suggested "Or uh.. The medics? they both look a little lost, little guy looks like he probably totally disapproves of romance stories though" She snickered.

"Yeah, Matt totally could use a movie like that." Ellie giggled at Luka's comment about Kay, remembering the sort of books Kay enjoyed reading. "And the medics. Let's totally invite them," she agreed. "Hmm, maybe we should find a big screen to plug into my 'com. I don't think it's big enough for five or more people to watch at once."

"We should totally do that!" Luka grinned, distraction! She got to her feet, looking around the lab. Hmmm, there were computers about the place, were those screens big enough?

Kay would wander about and make sure everyone didn't need medical help, always a little disappointed when they didn't because damnit, distractions were good right now.
He also wondered how mirror Shane was getting on with Asher's duplicate, had they actually gone to do what they needed to do, or had they gone straight to the captain to tell her about this gathering up here?
Hmm, worrying.
He went to check on Mourn who was still sleeping.