His lips twitched in what almost could've been a smile. “Can't argue that . . . we have enough problems just fighting humans. Although there are a lot of people who think that an external threat would finally unify humanity. At least until we defeated it or it destroyed us, that is.”
She would've preferred not to focus on such gloomy thoughts. “Want to do the atomics dive?” she suggested, to change the subject.
That was actually part of a familiarization packet Dax had, used to help people training for combat learn the effectiveness of various weapons and defensive systems. He actually spent a lot of time using it, and Lana had got the feeling it was one of his favorites given how he'd almost acted eager to show it to her.
She mostly found it boring, especially when it started getting into the statistics for test results using weapons against different materials. But she had to admit that it was fun to get behind the aiming system for a missile launcher and shoot atomics at different things, then watch the fireworks as they were obliterated.
Unfortunately, it got to the point where their fun in the full immersion rigs started eating up too much of their time. After a few days, the twins and even Aiden began complaining they were hogging the rigs. Which was fair, since there were only two on the ship, to be shared among five people; Ali could project herself into full immersion via the ship's computers without needing a rig, so she could accompany the captain on his dives that way.
Lana was disappointed when Aiden set a hard cap on how many hours a day they could use dives. She had a feeling Dax might've been as well, although he acted as if it had been inevitable. He seemed content to go back to training her, which she couldn't complain about, but she noticed a lot of the effects of her friend coming out of his shell while doing dives with her slowed down while training. Especially when they were on the bridge.
After talking it over with Ali, one of the few times she could find her away from Aiden, the companion suggested that most full immersion dives had lower tech analogues, interactive games or entertainment that could be accessed on displays. And somewhat ironically, even though they were far more rarely used they also used up a bare fraction of the storage space each dive took up, so the ship's computer stored a staggering variety.
That seemed worth checking out, and Lana immediately became enthusiastic about the idea when she realized that a lot of the entertainment came in the form of stories she and Dax could watch as an audience. That appealed to her since, while they were sitting together watching the stories, she had plenty of opportunities to cuddle with him.
All in all, in spite of her tension with Aiden and the fact that she was avoiding the rest of the crew, the trip away from Callous was an enjoyable one. At least until the morning four days after her confrontation with Aiden, when Belix finally managed to corner her in her room.
* * * * *
Lana had just woken up, and was getting ready to head out to meet Dax for breakfast before starting her shift, when the buzzer on her door rang. She was quick to open it, expecting it to be her friend and looking forward to the sight of his familiar, handsome face.
Instead, it was the elfin woman standing there; Lana could tell the sudden souring of her excitement was visible in her expression when Belix grimaced ruefully. “Well, that confirms it. You have been avoiding me.”
“Oh, um,” she said, caught off guard and with no idea what to say that wouldn't offend the Ishivi. Although she had to wonder whether she should really care about offending a woman who'd turn her own son into a mentally conditioned servant.
The elfin woman ignored Lana's obvious discomfort, or any chance to shut the door in her face and wait until she went away, by gliding into the small cabin and settling down at the end of the bed.
Steeling herself for unpleasantness, and hoping it didn't come in the form of any DNA-scrambling devices like Barix had threatened those slavers on Midpoint with, Lana shut the door and squeezed past her to sit at the other end of the bed. “I'm not sure what you mean.”
“Well you went from being reserved around me to acting like you hated my guts, and avoiding me even more determinedly than the genetic throwback piloting this rust bucket,” the elfin woman said, not quite able to pull off a truly lighthearted smirk. “Obvious explanation for that is either the Captain or the gunner finally got around to telling you about our tangled mess of a shared past.”
“Did you expect anything else?” Lana demanded, some of her anger from her confrontation with Aiden returning.
“I suppose not.” Belix grimaced again, looking slightly resentful. “Your reaction is about what I usually see from mongrels when they learn more about Ishivi customs.”
“You mean people have a problem with you enslaving your own children?” Lana asked sarcastically. “Yeah, hard to see why Aiden started avoiding you when you did it to his son. Or why I'd do the same.”
The elfin woman looked furious for a second. Then she closed her eyes and sucked in a sharp breath. “I'm trying so hard, Lana,” she said quietly. “You have no idea how much I want to be your friend. How much I want to have any friend aboard this decrepit floating scrapyard. If you've heard Aiden's perspective about this, and if my dear brother's right that you and the gunner are looking awfully cozy these days then you've probably heard his as well, then will you at least hear mine too? The more sides you hear from, even if they're biased, the closer you can get
