Upon Celestial Tiger: Chapter One

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A small, fast space yacht. The last owner named it Celestial Tiger.

Three small bedrooms (with bunks), one bathroom. Very small storage hold. combined dining/living area. Everyone's going to hate each other by the end of this road trip.

https://i.servimg.com/u/f11/19/46/08/46/small_10.jpg

Luka tried not to laugh. "I'm not sure I want to see how she'd react to such... disfigurement." She nodded. "It is, that's why there's always two of us. Two pilots mean you can react quicker and see more. " She paused, looking sad at the memory of her copilot.

Ethan nodded. "Not much bothers Tala, but I think that would."
He glanced up at Luka's pause, frowning at the look on her face. "Are you okay?" He returned his gaze quickly to the controls, because the ship wasn't going to fly itself right now, so he should be watching it.

Starr had curled around her eggs, placing her wing over them so the odd movement of the ship didn't make her lose one of them.'

Rigel was in his room working on the incubator. He heard the yelling, so kept working instead of getting up.

Luka nodded. "yeah, i'll be fine. Just... sad memories is all." She waved a hand. "Don't worry about it."

"Fair enough." Ethan knew pretty much everyone here had sad memories, and if they didn't want to discuss them, then he sure wasn't interested in prying. "It still amazes me that the Satare have such a developed military in this universe," he remarked. "In the other one, they always try to solve their problems with diplomacy and shit. I don't think they have a draft at all."

Luka nodded, the mirror universe was unsettling. "That doesn't work. A firm hand is the only way to deal with the savage universe." She hesitated, well, she'd come to learn not all aliens were filthy savages now, which made it all a bit harder to justify.

"I think it depends on the situation," Ethan said. "I've been reading a lot of history and sometimes states really need to fight to survive, but sometimes they just use self defense as an excuse to go out and conquer people who wouldn't have dared pick a fight with them anyway." He eased the Tiger to a faster speed, maintaining the charted course. "Still, I agree with you, the Satare in the other universe are a load of socialist morons."

Luka shrugged. "All I got to hear about it was from my other self and Eckhard... " That sad expression again, she shook her head. "They seemed fairly happy at least, you know, aside from the being captured by slaver bit." She frowned. "your universe was messed up. "

Ethan smiled oddly. "Messed up is relative. In the other universe, androids don't wear badges, people wouldn't trust Merith, and the I doubt the Guild gives away stuff to the poor for free." He glanced up at Luka, "Maybe we would have had a good time there of we'd ended up in the other Imperium. Assuming they haven't been conquered by anyone by now."

Luka nodded slowly. "I'm not sure I'd have liked it there. It's difficult enough to be out here amongst people so different to my own. To be around people who look Satare but don't act it would be.. really disconcerting. " She sighed. "But I suppose you're right, both universes are messed up places with awful people. "

Ethan nodded. "It's bizarre to see someone you recognize, but when you talk to them, they aren't anything like what you'd expect," he agreed. Yeah, he'd gotten to experience that a lot lately, and it was strange. "The mirror Satare don't sound that bad at least, they have stupid movies, but they don't condone slavery or hate people for thinking differently, as far as I know. I'm sure it'd be jarring for you to try and spend time with them though, their beliefs must be completely different from yours."

Luka frowned. "We don't have slaves." She folded her arms. "My people aren't bad, despite what some of the assholes out here think." She huffed.

"I know the Satare don't have slaves here, I've heard that from you and Kay before," Ethan said. He looked a bit wary at her frown, he was a bit nervous of Luka, since he was in her territory and she seemed to sometimes have a temper. "What I meant is that you have something in common with the mirror Satare, even if they are weird," he clarified.

"Maybe." She didn't look convinced. "That place was wierd. Some people were still decent people, others were monsters, but it didn't seem to have any sort of connection to who they were here. It makes no sense." Magic, bah.

Ethan nodded, looking at the screens and adjusting the Tiger's heading slightly. "Some people were better there, some were worse, some had powers that matched their powers here, and some had powers that were the opposite. It doesn't make sense." He added, "I'm glad to be here though, this universe is sucking less for me so far."

Luka nodded grimly. "Still, makes you wonder... it's not really a mirror universe as everyone calls it at all, just... different."

"It's just another universe, with different rules. We call these universes mirrors of each other, but they aren't perfect opposites. Seems like people have a habit of oversimplifying the things they don't understand," Ethan said. "Your duplicate was a pilot too, wasn't she? I never really talked to her."

Luka nodded. "Commercial pilot, she did like.. passenger flights." She shook her head. "Somehow she'd still ended up working with the same people, it was really weird. I mean what are the odds? "

"That part's weird," Ethan agreed. "Most of us met in entirely different ways in that universe, getting captured or traded or hired, but we still ended up knowing people who looked the same and had the same names. I don't get it. You'd think that at least our names would be different, since the culture is so different. And you were assigned partners in the Imperium, so how the hell would a commercial pilot end up with the same partner in the other universe? Maybe the Creators are all screwing with us."

Luka made a face. "You give them too much credit. Maybe it's just coincidence. Or some... I dunno.... cosmic balance thing. " She shook her head. "I don't know. It is weird. But everyone knew one another, just differently. Matt and Nurse freidman weren't brothers there right? but the other doctor, i'm pretty sure the Kay in this universe knew him here too. He has a photo of him." She frowned, oops, she probably shouldn't have mentioned that, it was a secret right? or something. She wasn't supposed to know about that picture anyway. She flushed a little. "But you're right, it doesn't make a lot of sense. It's too much of a coincidence that the same people would all end up in the same place in both universes."

"I guess it could be some sort of cosmic balance thing. It's just so bizarre that most of us are genetically so similar to our copies, and share their names, when the universe is so different. Makes you suspect some sort of foul play," Ethan said. "Kay knew a copy of Dr. Heinz here, too? Wonder if he was less of a useless pushover in this universe," he was always going to scorn that guy, even knowing that Kaylr had manipulated them both and that Heinz had been as much a victim of the situation as he had been. "Right, Kay and Matt's duplicates weren't brothers over there, and if there's a James in that universe, I'm not his brother either, and I didn't work at that space station they worked at. And yet, there are so many similarities in other ways."

Luka shrugged. "No idea, I didn't meet either of them... not really." She sighed. "I don't think we'll ever really understand it. Still, I wonder if there's other universes out there, similar but different, full of even more wierd duplicates who's lives went in different directions. "

"Probably for the best, Heinz was spineless and I don't think you'd like him much," Ethan said. "There must be other universes out there, maybe even one where one of us is an evil dictator," the idea amused him, and he snickered.

Luka made a face. "That doesnt' sound very fun." She shrugged. "maybe he was different here, like you and Asher. I dunno."

"Maybe so. Maybe he's an important guy in the Satare military here," Ethan said. He found that hard to imagine.

He steered the Tiger a bit to aggressively, and she spun out properly this time, tail spinning out wildly until he could get her back under control again.

"What are you youths doing to my vessel?" Tala bellowed from the living room.

Luka yelped and moved to take the controls from Ethan, trying to help bring the ship under control. Oops, busted.

Ethan let Luka take the controls, he wasn't nearly as effective at recovering from a spinout as Luka was. "Crap," he muttered.

Tala made her way to the cockpit once the ship had steadied, holding tightly onto the handrails that well designed small ships always had everywhere. "I desire an explanation!"

Ethan looked up nervously, trying to decide whether it was safer to throw the blame on Luka, or if Luka's resentment would prove to be more dangerous down the road than Tala's current anger.