You’re not wrong but I don’t want you to be right -- Anon Guest
Phryx stared at her Human companion. "Did you mean that to be confusing as it sounds, or are you having one of your verbal shortcuts again?" Verbal shortcuts were always a problem with Humans, especially on the Edge. They had ways of expressing themselves that were difficult to translate at best and needed a seminar to understand at worst.
"Oh. Right. Whoops. Okay. Brief version: Yes, we are going to die. You're not wrong there. Except, I want us both to die of a very old age and a long, long time after this entire clusterflakk is over." Humans could also be capable of some very economic means of communication, in this case, Human Qir encapsulated the entire, complicated battle for Science Base Netaan, featuring intermittent skirmishes, mad dashes for safety or improvised weapons, and surprise encounters with invaders who were lost in the labyrinthine halls as, This entire clusterflakk. "So yeah," ze said. "You're not wrong, but I don't want you to be immediately right. Got it?"
"Mostly," Phryx allowed. She checked what she could of the securicam feeds. Very many of them were down whilst Human Qir was messing around with wires, a keyboard, and a cable fed into hir livesuit helmet's HUD display. "Dare I ask what you're doing?"
"I'm trying to hack into helm pickups whilst using computer learning to tell friendlies from non-friendlies. If I can get picture-in-picture for you and I into our HUDs, we have a standing chance of avoiding the nons and getting your butt to safety."
Phryx felt a frisson of concern. For all of hir annoying verbiage, Human Qir was... a good friend. Damn hir, ze had spread hir pack-bonding on her! Phryx could hate the Human if they weren't already so deeply allied. "What of your... butt?"
Human Qir swore, and grabbed something heavy from the floor around hir. In the next moment, the door opened to reveal one of the hostiles. Human Qir was already prepared and in a near-negligent motion sent a former paperweight smashing into the invader's faceplate. A faceplate which was a cheaper generic model, meant to resist only the annoying threats.
The glass smashed and the being within suffered anaphylaxis and died.
"Okay. Good news," said Human Qir. "The hack works. I can track the baddies and wreck their shit. Bad news... I'm going to have to carry you out of here because glass."
"You have not answered my question about your butt," noted Phryx.
"My butt's going to be fine. I need you out of danger so I can wreck their butts."
Phryx's eyes narrowed. "This is not a Last Lie situation. I do not want you to die."
"Great news," Human Qir grinned. "I don't want to die either."
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / Arsgera]
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