Pandora's Box

[DotCom]

In the same way each of Eden's Disciples held Hitachi in some variation of 'warm regards', Evvy, the other minor aboard was...considered. 'Considered' was a nice way to put it, a gentle way, which was the best way, Cole reflected, if you wanted to avoid sullen snark from Jack and stubborn pouting from Evvy herself. Though Hitachi was, at least to Cole's understanding, well past the age where one might dole out hair tousling and nicknames like 'kiddo' or 'little one', the kid seemed to exude a youthfulness, or perhaps the more concise term was innocence that made the crew -- some of them, at least -- altogether more gentle than they might be with any other sixteen-year-old.

Or maybe Cole was just old fashioned. When he'd been sixteen, he'd been working on his father's farm at the far edge of what had been normalcy. He drove the tractor, helped birth the foals in the spring, and had gotten a hell of a talking to from Susan Dunlap's older brother.

But saying sixteen-year-old Cole wasn't like sixteen-year-old Hitachi wasn't accounting for half of what made them different, present setting -- and mutation -- aside.

Evvy, on the other hand....you could tell just exactly how old Evvy was (or near enough to 'exactly', which was still about as clear as mud) because she always fought like hell so you wouldn't know. There were times, sure, when she was 'off the clock', when she was especially tired or hungry, and no one was in any real danger...Then, Cole thought maybe he got glimpses of who she might have been, like that instance with Tavorn earlier, when she'd flat out refused (at least until Jack had asked) to leave the room. Cole knew she knew better, because she, like all of them, had been trained as a solider, or property of whatever government ranked highest back on earth. Evvy wouldn't have pulled a stunt like that -- not so boldly, anyway -- in the field, and certainly not if Nat had been there. But it happened, and when it did, it wasn't exactly surprising. No one, Cole was sure, not even Jack, would ever use the word 'mature' to describe Evvy. And she seemed to know it, for better or worse.

But she sure as hell put up with far more than any of them had expected her too. More than a kid her age, or even Hitachi's age, ought to have been made to bear. She wasn't impervious to pain or fear, and in fact still held to some more 'traditional' concerns for real kids, like deep water, or darkness. But when they were out in the field, or even just on a training mission, he never once heard her complain. Rarely while within earshot of anyone, and never to anyone but Jack. He'd seen her whether half day training simulations that would have half leveled a soldier thrice her size and four times her age, her young face blank, never saying so much as a word. At least not to him. Especially when she was working under Nat, but that was neither here nor there.

What was here and now was Hitachi, looking to Jack for defense, and Tavorn responding predictably. Cole was just getting ready to hope they might all be able to get a few hours work in before whatever left over cryo effects decided to put them all down for the night -- and then everything was shifting.

--

Tai knew, absolutely, immediately, she had probably already ruined things by saying anything at all.

Not the challenge. That had not been her...best moment, and she was not proud of it -- and she dreaded Kohe finding out -- but neither did she regret it. She wouldn't regret it, she told herself. Couldn't. To regret that reaction would be to deny a large part of this new self she had become and was becoming, and to do that...well. She couldn't.

No, what bothered her had been her own initial reaction to the strawberry-pink burning and blistering spread along the inside of Jack's left arm. The moment she'd seen it, she'd known what it was, and from there, she'd known without knowing how he might react if she asked about it -- how he would retreat from her when he so needed the very opposite. She'd known all of it in an instant, and yet none of it fast enough to stop her from shock, and perhaps a lurid sort of concern demanding an answer from him.

Stupid. Stupid.

Now? Now she could only hope Cole and Tavorn hadn't noticed...or if they had that they wouldn't pass the information on to someone who might actually do something with it. They were not soft men, she could feel, not weak-willed by any stretch of the imagination. But they could be persuaded, she thought, to see things from another perspective. More easily than others, at least. Like Nat. Or Sefa.

In any case, her preparations in the examining room were more or less complete, and beyond that, she'd gathered herself enough to recreate her bedside smile, at the very least. She poked a head into the back room to check on Evvy and was surprised to find the girl sitting up and staring at her. As if she'd known the younger twin was coming. Evvy looked wan, pale, exahausted...but she stared with an unnamble depth, a knowing Tai could feel, but not describe.

Most would have been unnerved by the intensity of the stare, and beyond that, the strange and uncanny cunning behind it.

Tai blinked a moment, then smiled.

"Hi," she said brightly. "Evvy? I'm Tai, remember? Are you alright? Are you dizzy at all? Thirsty?"

The girl's expression didn't change. "Where's Jack?"

"He's just down the hall. He'll be back soon, he went to check on -- "

"Hitachi. Is he...did he wake up?" A slight change in pitch where she was otherwise monotone. "He was sick. I felt him get sick."

Tai was instantly curious about that, but knew better than to ask. "Hitachi's alright. He should be here soon, too. You two need to warm up." A pause. And then a test. "Evvy? Are you warm enough?"

As if on cue, the girl shivered once, a tiny hand on her knee flinching toward the metal cuff around her neck before the hand seemed to remember itself and still. Now her expression did change, going from curious to shrewd to almost accusatory all in one fluid movement.

"I can't be more warm," she said carefully, and Tai saw the girl was returning a test of her own. Interesting.

"I'm dangerous when I'm too warm," Evvy went on. "You're supposed to know that."

"Are you too warm now?" Tai asked. "Is that why you hurt Hitachi?"

Evvy flinched like Tai had struck her, then quickly recovered and scowled. "I'm tired," she said, sounding expertly petulant, as if she were play-acting a child, and not actually one herself. "I want you to go now."

"I'll go," Tai said calmly. "I'm going. But Evvy, I want you to tell me if you ever feel too warm." Another pause. "Or too cold. Okay?"

Evvy didn't say a word. Tai hadn't really expected her to. But before she left, she stooped and pulled another bottle of water and two more blankets from the supply closet and left the on the empty bench nearest Evvy's bed.

The walk back to the cryochamber seemed somehow much shorter than it had before, and Tai ended up taking just another half a second to compose herself right outside the door -- and then finding it hadn't mattered at all as she stopped short, utterly baffled.

There, in the center of the room, stood Kohe and Hitachi, clutching each other like they had known one another for years. Which, Tai thought, might actually be true. She sensed she was missing a greater part, though, of the mystery, if the reactions of Elia and Cole were anything to go by. The latter stared, looking positively shell-shocked, for lack of a better term.

The former looked intrigued, if a little exhausted, as if more puzzles were the very last thing he'd wanted to be handed at the moment. For that, Tai could hardly blame him, and he wasn't surprised when he slipped quickly away at Nat's call. He wouldn't be much good here for whatever was going on, anyway.

Tai, for her part, took a moment to take in the scene before moving forward, and directly past Jack. She had to tell him something, but later, and away from prying eyes. He wasn't quite ready for her yet, either, if they way he'd stiffened when she'd moved past could be deemed an indicator of anything meaningful.

She stopped, instead, beside Hitachi's now empty cryobed to pick up her tablet and flick through it for a moment before saying, "'Set -- Kohe? He needs to go to the medbay. And I need to talk to you."

 

[Kaisaan]

Kohe couldn't accurate describe the feeling that had come over her as she'd gone about her work upstairs. It had just come, swift and relentless, an urge, a call she could barely hear anything past. She lost all concentration and was nearly bolting from the chair she sat in before any kind of sense could take over. She didn't WANT it to. In that moment, for the first time in a long, long time she didn't want to think about everything. She just wanted to act and so she did - she did when Kohe knew damn well she shouldn't have been able to. Upon seeing Hitachi, though, it felt as if everything made sense the moment her mismatched eyes met his green-blue.

She knew those eyes.

The halfbreed had no idea how she knew them, but she did and the words came without hesitation. She knew them, somehow, understood they were right....just as enveloping the teen into her arms was right. She threaded her fingers through his hair, feeling him shake against her and for a moment, when her sister came into the room, Kohe felt a flash of confusion as to what she was doing. It faded away again almost immediately when Hitachi's head moved to regard Tai. He stayed near Kohe, but his green-blue eyes watched the younger twin with a kind of intensity Elia - observing the three - had never seen directed at anyone before.....well, none but Evvy, and he'd assumed that was due to a crush. But now....perhaps not.

The boy finally, slowly, looked back up to the elder twin who held him securely and it was with purpose that he reached up and took the breathing mask from his face. Elia's protest and movement was instant, but Kohe held up her hand to stop the doctor, never looking from Hitachi's eyes. "He doesn't need it." was the calm explanation and brown eyes narrowed, displeased for the first time since waking.

"With all due respect, you are not a doctor and just because Hitachi wants something, doesn't mean-"

"He doesn't breathe with his mouth or his nose. Like a plant, he absorbs oxygen through his skin." Kohe calmly interrupted and she finally looked away from the boy, raising a challenging, almost sarcastic brow at the black-haired male. "Or has that escaped your notice even after all your time with him?" She noted that Elia appeared somewhat startled, but he didn't immediately lash back at her...something she knew she rather deserved. Why had she said that? And in front of Tai, too! Gods above, no wonder her twin wanted to speak to her. Kohe hadn't exactly done a good job of pretending everything was fine since waking, had she? She'd have to work on that....starting now. Shaking her head and lifting a hand to forestall words, the halfbreed spoke far more softly this time. "I am sorry. That was uncalled for. Please, forget it. I am sure you've taken excellent care of Hitachi and I am in no position to judge."

There was silence for a moment after her words and then the doctor chuckled just a little and let a smile flit across his face, a shrug set in his shoulders. "No apology needed, Koheera. We're all on edge right now. Think nothing more of the matter." He gave her a reassuring look and Kohe attempted a smile back before the doctor looked to Hitachi. "Tai is right, kiddo. You need to get to the medbay. Evvy is already there, so you won't be lonely." Looking to Kohe, who'd yet to let the boy go, Elia raised a brow of his own and the woman seemed to take a breath before she slowly released the boy, meeting his green-blue eyes again....and feeling reassured by the lack of fear and calm acceptance in his expression before he wordlessly turned from her and allowed Elia to help him exit the room, on their way to the medbay.

Only when the head of white hair was out of sight did Kohe look to her sister, the gesture of meeting Tai's eyes almost....cautious. The elder twin knew very well her sister had seen enough today to guess something was wrong and honestly, it made Kohe angry with herself. If she couldn't even pretend that everything was normal with her sibling, someone she trusted, then how was she going to convince the others she was stable? She wasn't, of course, not by a long shot, but surely she could make them believe she was!

Well...not Tai. She should have known that, though. Her little sister had never really missed anything when it came to Kohe. She was always....there. Always saying or doing the right thing. That was just Tai, though. It was something Kohe had come to expect, lean on far too heavily, though. Their three years of separation had driven that home in the most....brutal of ways. If she couldn't take care of herself, she was weak. Tai, must as she loved and adored her sister, was comfort that Kohe couldn't risk. Not again.

"What did you need to talk about?"

As if she couldn't already guess. Kohe bit her tongue against the plea on her lips, the words for Tai to just leave the topic be. She knew her sister better than that...though, Kohe was not naive enough to believe that Tai was unchanged by their separation from each other. She could only hope they were far more beneficial changes than her own.

--

It wasn't for the Sterling twin that Nat called Cole into the Control Room, though, she could have. The other woman triggered something uneasy in the pilot, a feeling she didn't often ignore. Of course, Evvy and Hitachi did the same, but again those were cases she ignored for the good of the mission. Perhaps Koheera would be the same, but still, she'd be keeping a close watch on the other. For now, however, it was something else that had caught her attention, another reason entirely that she called Cole to her.

Upon his entry into the room, she gave him a brief glance before turning away again, a smile twitching at her lips. "You look haggard. Hard night with the kids?" It was the closest the Russian ever came to teasing and she soon moved on, not one to linger over jokes and knowing very well that she'd get little more than a look or an eye-roll from Cole at her quip. HE'D learned long ago not to try and prolong the moment lest it be lost completely to a cold shoulder from the pilot. Her affection was meaningful but fleeting in appearance and would remain so no matter how true the heart beneath her breast beat.

"Come look at this."

She wordlessly pointed to the data on the screen when she felt him hover over her shoulder and just as calmly explain what he was looking at. "It's metal readings, alloys and such. At first I thought it to be space junk, but such an automatic thought, upon further reflection, was unreasonable. So far from Earth, there is no space junk out here." She gave a disgruntled kind of sound through her nose and finally glanced back to Cole with a hard expression, clearly unhappy, but not with him. It was with the data before her, the information that didn't quite make sense. Her accent thickened with her displeasure.

"Despite such a fact, there remains the evidence that there IS metal floating in rotation around Eden. Debris that should not be there, Cole, not if this is a virgin planet. I do not know how to explain it and I don't like it."

 

[DotCom]

Tai watched Kohe for a moment. Watched her with Hitachi. Watched her with Elia. Watched her watch both of them -- soon followed by Jack -- disappear down the hall toward the med bay. And she said nothing.

She could sense the tension in her sister, a different sort than what she'd felt before. There was less of that desperate, depthless, chaotic fear now -- though that still lingered, nameless, under the surface -- more anxious tension, like she was waiting for Tai to call her on something she didn't want to answer.

Tai almost laughed at that, strangely comforted. Three years apart had changed them both, surely. But perhaps the twins were not so different as they seemed to think.

There was a sudden urge just to say that as the room emptied and Tai had a chance to speak to her sister alone for the first time in nearly three years. Every opportunity up until now had been marred or rushed in some way. Kohe had been ill or panicked, or they'd been busy, under time restraints or other responsibilities. They'd been doing lightning-round training to be fired into space on the literal journey of a lifetime. It was almost like they hadn't been together at all since --

But no. Now was neither the time, nor place. Even if they had been promised the respite of a few minutes, all the things Tai could and couldn't say to her sister would fill a year, let alone a handful of seconds. No. Best to keep things light, then. After all, she had her own questions she didn't want to answer, and she wasn't so naive as to think Kohe wouldn't 'defend' herself if Tai started probing first.

Instead, Tai smiled at her sister, a subconscious attempt to disarm the obvious tension settled in Kohe's shoulders.

"You look beautiful, Set--ah, Kohe," Tai started. It wasn't what she'd meant to say, certainly. But it was true, so she didn't take it back. "Are you feeling alright? From...from before? Do you think it was...a reaction to the cryostasis?"

Tai hesitated, looking down as she smoothed her hands over a nonexistent wrinkle in her shirt.

"I ask because...well..." There was a long pause, then Tai began again. "I was going to tell you about the younger ones. Hitachi, the boy you just...well, you know. And the other, the girl. Evvy. There was some...malfunction with their beds. Tavorn says neither of them really slept. They didn't age, but..." Tai shrugged and flicked through her tablet again. "I wanted to mention it because I think they may have us look into it, you and I, or maybe you and the other tech. They want a medic and an engineer to check the beds, but..."

Tai hesitated a moment, then studied her sister carefully. She hadn't wanted -- didn't want -- to mention this part. But she couldn't let Kohe go into this blind. And she had to know. That strange feeling in her gut wouldn't leave her alone until she asked.

"Ko', you remember how I used to get those...flashes of intuition when we were kids? Like your visions, but much milder. Like that time I knew Mom was going to find Grandpa's keys in the freezer. Or when I convinced you to play sick home from school with me on the day of the fire?" Tai paused, swallowed.

"I hadn't had one of those in a while, maybe not a real one since...since the last time I saw you, I guess, but...waking up that little girl I had one. Something like one, anyway, I didn't really feel anything, but I got this sense, like someone was trying to tell me something. Say these words I couldn't quite hear...I thought maybe it was her, Evvy, saying them to me somehow, but telepathy isn't one of her abilities. And then when you...you know, and I ran up there, you woke up, and you said..."

Violet eyes flicked up toward her sister, her every sense attuned for sparking panic -- or worse, another episode -- in her twin. Tai took a step closer just in case.

"Do you remember, Kohe? What you said? 'The Black. It's coming.'" Another long pause.

"That little girl...she said them too. I dunno how, Ko', 'cause she was so quiet. But somehow, she was screaming them."

--

Evvy had been standing at the door, Tai's blanket draped over her head and shoulders, standing barefoot on her toes, eyes shut as she listened and felt for Hitachi. She could feel him coming, and she could feel that he was tired from whatever had happened before. But he didn't feel scared, or not that scared, so she guessed that was good.

...but there was something about him, she thought, something new, something she couldn't put words to --

The door swung open and away from her suddenly, and then Evvy was scrambling away, throwing herself on her bed, trying to keep her breathing even, just as Jack and Elia walked in, Hitachi pale and shivering -- but whole -- between them.

"Give it up, kid, we know you're awake," Jack said with a smirk as he helped Hitachi to an empty bed. "And that water bottle is supposed to be half empty by now."

Evvy played her ruse a bit longer then sat up, glowering at Jack before turning wide-eyes to Hitachi...and then quickly away as a blush began to crawl up her neck.

"Is he okay?" she said quietly, still wholly unable to make eye contact with the older boy.

Her head still hurt from when she'd accidentally burned Jack's arm. She could feel it hurting him, too, though he was doing a good job of pretending otherwise. She hadn't meant to hurt him. Evvy rarely meant to hurt anyone, and in fact had gotten much better at controlling herself. She hated the cold, but she'd come to love the collar she had to wear, even when they had to make it colder until it was hard to sleep. It meant she had fewer accidents. And up here, it meant she was supposed to have any. She hadn't felt this one coming on. She'd been scared and sick, yeah, but she'd been real tired, too. She thought that was sort of strange. Normally, once she got past being sick, she was too weak to do anything, even if she still felt scared or out of control. But that hadn't been enough to stop her this time. The fire had come out of nowhere, surprising them both, burning Jack. He hadn't screamed, but she had. With his pain, and with hers, made worse because she'd been the one to hurt him.

She'd gotten sick again after that. She couldn't help it. Being around hurting people was bad enough. Being the one to hurt them almost always put her out of commission. This hadn't been very different. Jack had held her while she puked and dry heaved and finally worn herself out so she could hardly argue when he said he was going to check on Hitachi.

"You're getting 'Tashi?" she sort of remembered muttering. She was still trying to fight. She still wanted to go with him. But Jack was pale and shaking with the pain of his arm under an empty stomach, and she could barely keep her eyes open. It felt like she'd been waiting to sleep forever.

"I'll go get him and bring him right back, kid," he'd promised. "You get some rest."

"I hurt you," she wailed miserably. "Jack..."

"Shhh," he'd soothed, pushing sweat-soaked hair from her forehead even as the cuff around her neck glowed dark blue. She was shivering already. "I'll be back, kasai. Just rest a minute. I'll be back."

And he had come back. And with "'Tashi" which was her stupid baby name for him Evvy kept trying to forget, and yet somehow clung to anyway. Hitachi -- that was his real name...sort of -- didn't feel good, she knew. But he wasn't scared like he had been before. And he knew something. About her. About all of them. Something big.

Evvy shivered once spastic, and Jack frowned from across the room. She knew he was thinking about her collar. She knew he was scared they were gonna have to make it colder because she'd hurt him, but she didn't mind that.

There was something different about this place. It made Evvy feel funny, and she wasn't sure she liked it at all.

--

Cole gave the pilot a wry smirk running a hand through his hair as he stifled a yawn. "You don't know the half of it," he grumbled, and left it at that. He knew Nat hadn't really been asking, and certainly not about the kids. Not to say she didn't care about the crew. She did -- insofar as she expected them all to remain well enough to do their jobs efficiently -- but not as Cole did. Cole had always been more of a people person than Nat, though that part wasn't hard. Beyond that, though, he was their captain, and a natural leader. He wanted the mission to succeed, yes. But he wanted, too, to keep his team safe. Even if they were all apparently hellbent on driving him to an early grave.

In any case. Nat trusted him to do his job. That meant keeping tabs on his people, not necessarily griping about the otherwise tense atmosphere that naturally followed a three-year nap. That wasn't really their relationship, anyway. Nat had no time or patience for whining, and Cole was far more prone to fixing a problem rather than fixating upon it. Some might say it made their relationship shallow or insincere. But Cole could only think it let them work better as a team.

Now, he came to stand behind her as she turned back to the flight console, his wry grin soon morphing into a perturbed frown. Tech was not and never had been Cole's real strong suit. But they all knew what virgin air was supposed to look like. They'd seen enough pollution back on earth to dream of the real thing half a hundred times over.

"The hell...?" he muttered slowly, reaching over to viewfinder frame back a bit, thinking -- sort of thinking -- maybe the ship was still waking up. But of course that wasn't it. Nat didn't make mistakes like that. And the super-computer VI that powered Artemis even less so.

Cole was quiet for a long moment. He felt Nat's eyes on him, could sense her expression more than he could see it. Any other time, he'd have found it amusing. That was Nat -- she hated not having an answer, and hated even more having a very obvious answer that made no logical sense. It could make her wonderfully stubborn sometimes.

With a sigh and a shake of his head, Cole turned back to her, his expression grim.

"Hate to break it to you, Nat," he started. "But I think the explanation is obvious: 'less this place is just shootin' metal into the sky - which case we got other problems to worry about - then someone put all that stuff out here. Maybe Eden ain't so virgin as she thinks."

 

[Kaisaan]

Of all the things she'd thought Tai would say...that was not one of them.

Kohe blinked, genuinely and completely confused in a way she'd not been in a long time. She looked beautiful? What was that supposed to mean? She looked like crap. Dressed in standardized cryo clothing of loose sweat pants and a tank-top, her hair in disarray, pinned up in a sloppy bun and an obvious pallor to her skin from cryo and weariness both, the halfbreed knew she looked anything but beautiful. Why her sister had said it, the elder twin couldn't figure out and rather than relax her, it put her on edge.....for more reasons than one.

"Çok güzelsin. Güzel, çok güzel, benim küçük fahişe."

The remembered, whispering words brought a shudder to her frame that she just barely fought off and Kohe forced herself to take a breath. That was not now, not here. Her sister was here. The ship was now. Those people couldn't get to her anymore, not even if they tried. She was safe. Breathe. She repeated the word over and over, three times, four, five, counting each as her therapist had told her to until the wisps of panic faded away. It was only then that she registered Tai's questions, but by that point her twin had gone on to speak, not waiting for a reply anyway. It was something that brought a measure of stability back to the elder sister. She remembered Tai doing that, even when they were young. Always questioning and then rambling on without waiting for answer. There was more purpose to her twin's continuance now, yes, but the way she went about it was familiar and it soothed Kohe as her sister's words had not.

Listening, the halfbreed knew that anyone else might have been confused by how Tai explained things, her stopping and starting enough to make anyone struggle to keep up with her process of explanation, but Kohe was used to it. In truth, it was nice to see that some things had not changed at all - even down to how her sibling stepped close at the mention of what Kohe had uttered in her trance-like state, concerned even now. Kohe remembered that - remembered how Tairisa was always close, always ready to help. She found comfort in it despite herself, despite the logic that told her she needed to remain strong on her own.

The words her sister spoke, though, chased all those conflicting, whirling thoughts away, replacing them with an image of blue-green eyes. Fire flared around them now, a distant, young female voice that lifted in a scream and a bright flash of light followed by all-consuming darkness that never abated. Kohe didn't know she'd experienced another fit, this time mild compared to the last, only sending her to the ground in shivers and a blank stare before she came back to herself. Her mismatched eyes snapped to her twin's violet and Kohe's fingers found Tai's wrist, the first true contact between them in a while - and the first that Kohe had initiated.

"She was screaming. She was screaming. She will keep screaming. It's here. It's coming." There was fear, true fear in Kohe's eyes in that moment and her grip tightened. "Mórán solais, it has already been and will be again. They can stop it. We must protect them. They can stop the Darkness."

---

"He's going to be just fine, Evvy."

Elia's answer was calm, soothing even as he was very careful in his process of wrapping the sixteen year old up in a blanket. Hitachi was still holding the Bonsai tree, its branches and leaves wrapped around his chest and back, creeping up his neck like some kind of all-natural shirt or armor. The boy didn't seem concerned with it, so the doctor left it alone. All the while, though, he contemplated what Kohe had said before they'd taken Hitachi away.

Did the boy truly breathe through his skin? And if so....how had no one caught on to that before? Hitachi had been with the team for three years - granted, one of them had been in isolation, but still. No one had discovered this? And what of cryo? If the boy absorbed oxygen through his skin...how the hell had Hitachi survived?

All questions for another time...and perhaps for someone else because Elia knew very well that the sixteen year old wouldn't answer them. There were sincere doubts as to whether Hitachi could talk at all. No one had heard him say one thing in the three years he'd been with the program and there were no records of any kind of him talking before that, either. The teen, for all anyone knew, was absolutely mute. Intelligent - scarily so - and very, very skilled, but without speech....or writing. And yet, somehow, he made himself known. Elia had worked with him for two years now and STILL did not entirely get how it was that even he understood the boy when Hitachi wanted to be understood.

It was strange, but then, so was the teen himself and the only one who had seemed able to truly relate to him was Evvy.

Even now, it was to her that Hitachi's blue-green eyes went and stayed. The boy watched her closely and while Elia might have assumed it was out of worry or a crush, the truth was similar, but different, too.

--

Hitachi had always hated that collar around her neck. He knew very well what it was for, how it worked and what his Kwen Yenis thought it did for her. She was wrong. They all were. They were trying to cage a volcano, foolishly thinking the pressure would diminish rather than build. Humans were like that, though, weren't they? Always wanting to put a bandage on something, hide it away in hopes it would go away. In reality it festered beneath their covering and it grew infected until there was no hope of recovery. They were trying to 'fix' the female across from him, but what they didn't know was that she didn't need to be fixed.

Angel - his name for Evangeline - needed freedom and she needed to find control deep within herself. The same kind of control her entire species had learned. It was unfortunate they would not be able to teach her. Hitachi knew he could not, either....but there was someone on this ship now who could. Getting the two to interact would be....interesting, but not impossible. He would see that it happened.

In the meantime, Hitachi let Elia look him over, complying with anything the doctor wanted until the man was satisfied. He glanced to the male in question at the order to drink fluids and rest, and Elia took that as consent before leaving. Blue-green eyes moved back to Angel then before glancing to the plant around his chest. Instantly it started to unwrap itself from his body, moving docilely back to its pot until he was free of it. Hitachi felt his system struggle for a moment before it seemed to remember how to work and started to do so, leaving him free to move about again, albeit weakly and slowly. He didn't even glance to Jack as he moved off the table, but to the metal floor where his bare feet were curling away. Metal, steel, concrete, plastic, glass - what was it about this species that they felt they had to distance themselves from anything that was natural? Living on their planet had often been hell....but this, being in this thing, was far worse. Unfortunately, it was also necessary.

It didn't stop his entire body from shivering in revulsion and it was with a brief touch to the Bonsai tree - as if to reassure himself that there was something living on the ship - the teen moved over to Angel. Jack wouldn't stop him, not at the risk of upsetting the girl and Hitachi understood that Angel was drawn to him without understanding why. He took that into consideration any time he was around her and often could be found sitting near her, or perhaps simply handing her a piece of chocolate or giving her a flower bracelet, even draping a blanket over her when needed or hovering outside her room after she'd had a nightmare. Many thought it was because of a crush. For Hitachi it was far more than that.

She was like him.....even as she was not...and he needed to look after her, if he could.

Drawing near the female, Hitachi pulled himself up on to the table beside her without a word. Never a word. He didn't even look at Angel, merely leaning back against the wall, his eyes closed, but his body stayed near her own and he inevitably absorbed the warmth she was radiating. In fact, unknown to anyone, Hitachi was drawing it from her in the smallest increments and as he did, the collar around her neck lost some of its intensity, some of the glaring brightness that warned she was too hot.

Just as he'd known it would. Just as he knew so much more.

--

Eden. Not a virgin planet.

The mere thought, the simple suggestion was just...staggering....and terrifying. It brought into question everything they'd thought. It made their entire mission change. It...boggled the mind. It brought a thousand and one billion questions to mind and not one of them could be answered at just a glance. How were they going to explain this to the others?

Would they?

Cole would want to. Nat knew that. He always wanted everyone on the same page, but in this case Natalia was willing to argue with him. To let the entire crew know that they'd answered the question of whether they were alone in the universe....she just.....no. They couldn't do that. Not yet. There would be chaos. No hysteria, of course not; the crew of the Artemis was volatile, not weak, but there would be conflict. There would be those who would want to stay on the ship, to analyze everything before taking any risks. There would be others who would want to go see firsthand what was on the surface, to be hands-on about everything, immediately. There would be rank broken and Nat would not have that. Cole would not either, at the very least they would agree about that.

Turning from the screen, trying to shove her own shell-shocked reaction to the back of her concern list, Nat looked back to her Captain. "If Eden is not virgin soil, that changes everything." It was the stating the obvious, but the pilot did it anyway and moved on. "We will need to prepare the others as best we can before we let them know of the change in details. We must be ready to act in one manner or another before we inform them."

 

[DotCom]

Even before Kohe was on the floor, Tai saw something violent rock her sister, and it scared her. Not just because she didn't know what it was, couldn't understand it, and so couldn't relieve her twin of it. Not just because she knew it hurt Kohe, consumed her in a way Tai didn't think she could touch. But because it seemed to surround Kohe, inside and out, having crept into her very consciousness, changing Kohe almost on a spiritual level. For a second, her twin ceased to exist at all, and in her place there was a frail, slender thing afraid and alone and aloof, someone Tai could scarcely recognize. What she'd said hadn't been a lie. Kohe was different, but Kohe was Kohe, and Kohe was beautiful in every way a person could be.

But the woman before her in that moment...that had not been Kohe. That had not been beautiful. And that...that scared Tai.

Her sister had returned in an instant, though, clawing her way to the surface of the husk she'd left with a rigidity that was new but fueled by a strength and determination Tai recognized. And as the Kohe Tai recognized returned, so did the Tai that would have been more familiar to her sister. Tai dropped to her knees, making certain to keep Kohe from hitting her head as she trembled, though this seizure did not seem near so violent as the last. She felt a long-latent but familiar tang of fear rising at the back of her throat and swallowed hard to keep it from catching there, swelling until it kept her from breathing.

Kohe wrapped trembling fingers around her wrist a moment later, and Tai felt the pressure on her chest ease...but only slightly.

"Shhh," she soothed awkwardly, using her other hand to smooth the hair from Kohe's eyes. "It's alright, Kohe. I'm here. Just...just..."

Just what? She'd heard full well what Kohe had said, and though she didn't understand, the words themselves sparked an image in her head. She didn't have to ask who 'they' were. She knew. She knew nothing of the Darkness Kohe spoke of, when or where or how it was coming. But it was coming, and fast. It was coming for all of them, and those kids were the only one who could stop it.

--

Evvy had been called many things, and many of them were true. But shy was not among them. She could be quiet, sullen, moody, reserved. She could pout and ignore even Jack with the best of them. But for as often as she didn't act like a child her age, Hitachi could bring out those moments when she did without a single word.

Jack watched with a smirk and a raised eyebrow as Evvy predictably folded into herself when Hitachi crawled up next to her. For a moment, he knew, Evvy forgot there was anyone else in the world as she shyly chewed her lip, getting to her knees to examine the older boy -- both to ensure that he was alright, and just because she was, as always, fascinated by him. She had waited until he'd closed his eyes, then let hers comb slowly over his figure before shooting Jack a glance...and blushing furiously when she caught him looking back at her with a knowing grin.

She turned around abruptly then, sitting back and studying her knees as if she were bored with Hitachi. But it wasn't even half a minute before she was edging back next to him again, her faced flushed bright red, not with heat, but with shy embarrassment as she drew as close as she dared, as though she didn't want to disturb the older boy or let him know she was there. Jack knew, though, Hitachi knew perfectly well where Evvy was. He didn't understand their relationship. Evvy -- aside from being positively in love with him -- was drawn to him in a way she couldn't articulate. When he asked her, she only grew shy and tongue-tied, her answers reduced to shrugs and blushing giggles. But beyond that, Hitachi's presence, even when Evvy slept, always seemed to change the girl. She had seen her calm from illness, overheating, nightmares, and the like when Hitachi just walked by. Even now, he could swear it -- though of course it wasn't possible -- that the red light was fading from the cuff around her neck as she sat there next to him, studying him with rapt attention.

Jack watched a tiny hand edge out slowly, toward Hitachi's face, perhaps to brush away an errant lock of hair. Jack's smile widened and he tutted softly.

"Let him rest, Bug. You, too. You're supposed to be sleeping."

Evvy drew back, surprised and blushing another shade darker, to scowl at Jack...though it didn't last long as she was peering at Hitachi from under long lashes again a moment later. From the corner of his eyes, Jack saw her press half an inch closer, leaving as little space as she could between them without disturbing him. Then very, very carefully, she stretched the blanket wrapped around her shoulders so it was covering his lap, too. That done, she eyed him once more before adopting the exact same position he had, leaning back with her eyes closed, to follow him into suspected sleep.

--

Jack snorted under his breath, knowing, that for all her careful intentions, Evvy wouldn't stay upright for long. It happened whenever the strange silent boy seemed to sense that Evvy needed him. He would find her, wherever she was, without a word, and Evvy would calm almost at once. He would rest -- Jack was never sure if it was true rest, for her sake or his own, or neither or both -- and Evvy, captivated, would follow suit. She would never quite curl up with him the way she did with Jack. She was still too shy for that, and in fact she and Hitachi almost never spoke, between his silence and her shyness. But he would scoot as close to him as she dared and adopt whatever position he had -- even if it meant sneaking a small plant from the BioDome back on earth -- and wait for him to 'wake up' and see her.

What happened more often was that Jack carried her to her bed as she slumped over. He would never argue the two weren't good for each other. But he worried sometimes that Hitachi forgot himself when he was with Evvy. The girl undoubtedly idolized him, but it was harder for Jack to forget the boy was just that: a boy.

--

She had been pretending not to notice when Tashi -- no, Hitachi, that was his name, his real name...or his kinda real one -- came over, except that for the second he abandoned his tiny tree for the ship (she could feel it in him, somehow, knew that was what had bothered him, what had made him sick...or part of it, anyway), she felt a whole new wave of badness go through him and she frowned. He wasn't supposed to be here. None of them were, but him especially. It was bad for him, this new place. It would be a little better when they got to get off the ship, but it would be worse, too. Something here wanted to hurt him. Hurt all of them. Evvy didn't like that.

But whatever she'd been thinking fled just as soon as she realized he was coming to see her, and she felt her face go hot, but not in the bad way. Evvy ducked her eyes at once, biting hard on her bottom lip to keep from giggling, because there wasn't anything funny happening, but her stomach still felt full of butterflies. She was excited Tashi -- Hitachi -- was coming to see her, but she was scared, too, because what if she did something and he didn't like her anymore?

Evvy was always happy to see Tashi. He was nice to her and brought her nice things like flowers that opened just when he gave them to her. He never asked her too many questions like the others, and never made her pretend to be more or less than she was. And he never made her talk about anything, good or bad...though she told him sometime, if she was really sad or scared. Mostly, she just liked sitting with him and being quiet, and feeling the way her pulling was different around him. Like he was pulling her instead. But it didn't hurt when he did it. It didn't feel bad or scary. In fact, it felt good. It felt warm.

Evvy waited and watched patiently as Tashi climbed up beside her, stealing glances when she thought he wasn't looking, though somehow, she felt sure that he always was. And when he sat back beside her and went to sleep, she suddenly realized she was tired, too -- and she was tired, not just because Tashi was, like Jack teased sometimes! -- and she sat beside him, just like he was sitting. But just because she wanted to. She sat like that sometimes by herself, not just when Tashi was looking.

She could feel beside her that he wasn't really sleeping, even though he was tired, and Evvy did her very best to stay awake and stay quiet and calm like Tashi.

To her credit, she made it almost five full minutes before her careful, steady breathing was replaced by quiet snoring, and she collapsed to one side, her head just reaching the crook of Hitachi's elbow.

--

Jack, smugly amused, stepped forward as Evvy, in her sleep, began to wrap herself around Hitachi just like his little Bonsai tree had.

"Time for both of you to get some real sleep," he muttered quietly, as he reached over to detangle Evvy from her position immediately beside the white-haired teen in hopes of giving the other a little room to stretch out.

Predictably, however strangely, Evvy half woke in protest, as if she knew, even asleep, someone was putting distance between her and her favorite object of fascination. Jack shushed her calmly.

"Yes, yes, I know, little bird. But you both need some rest and you'll sleep much better if you have room and a bed to do it." With some practiced maneuvering, he hefted Evvy onto his back, her arms draped loosely around his neck, her chin against his shoulder, and was just about to retreat, perhaps to locate Evvy's quarters, when Cole met him at the door.

Jack stiffened on impulse, but dropped the pretension for general suspicion once he read the older man's expression.

"What?"

"We're moving the briefing up," Cole answered tersely. "Get upstairs. All of you."

"What, even the kids?" Jack shrugged a shoulder, nodding at Hitachi. Evvy's only response was to frown in her sleep.

Cole looked from Jack to Elia to Evvy to Hitachi, then back to Elia. "What's the word, Doc? Can we move 'em? You two need to hear what's up, too."

"What's your word?" pressed Jack, more curious than insubordinate, though with Jack, there had always been a thin line between the two. "Why the hurry all of the sudden?"

Cole watched the younger man evenly, trying to figure out exactly what to say. Jack was discerning, but he and Nat had agreed to keep their most recent discovery between them until they had a more solid plan of action. Still, they needed to share something with the crew, lest any of them find out anything had been kept from them.

"Plan's changed," was all he settled on for the moment. "First trainings start tomorrow, whole team. We're gonna do Simulation 929 at 0800 hours. Briefing in five minutes."

Jack was too tired to swallow a groan of dismay.

 

[Kaisaan]

Hitachi hadn't gone to sleep. Not for a moment. In fact, he rarely did. When everyone thought him sleeping, when they assumed that because his eyes were closed and his breathing slow, and his young body in need of the rest that such was what he was doing. Often that was not the case. Hitachi rarely slept and such had been the way for the duration of time he'd been on Earth. Sleep meant vulnerability and he'd learned very, very early on that humans preyed on such a thing and abused it brutally. He had not experienced a REM cycle in a long, long time. Years. And cat-naps inbetween were hardly that at all, but they were the only sleep he got. Not being human meant it didn't affect him like they would assume it would, however, and such was the reason none of them had realized he did such and that he could even trick the machines into thinking he was truly sleeping.

No, Hitachi heard everything that was said, was aware of every action taken by the female at his side and he was more than aware of Jack's attentive gaze. The shifter was always so and the snow-haired teen had accepted it without complaint. His motives were not at all what one would assume of a youth his age - but then, Hitachi wasn't human. Even if he had been, Angel, for all her years (however many there were) was far too young for him anyway. She appeared eleven at most and he sixteen. Far too great an age-gap for anything to happen.

He knew Angel's fascination with him were far purer than even she might imagine and he knew they did not stem from attraction as humans would see it as much as it did from one kin recognizing another on the most basis of levels. She was drawn to him because she was meant to be, nothing more. Not yet, anyway. They'd been betrothed at one time, but with what had happened to her species and him estranged from his own....Hitachi was not sure the arranged marriage applied anymore.

Regardless, his interest didn't lay in that direction at this point anyway.

Jack obviously worried for it, though, and because the shifter brought comfort to Angel, Hitachi didn't protest when his Kwen Yenis was removed each and every time she thought to curl up near him. This time was the same and it wasn't until Cole's presence came into the room, followed by Elia as the Captain had obviously caught him in the hallway, that the white-haired boy opened his eyes. Elia was looking between him and Angel, seeming unwilling to move them but finally he sighed and nodded. "They need to be kept as immobile as possible, but they could make the short trek upstairs."

A stern look moved to Cole at the mention of training. "I will have to clear everyone for that kind of exercise, Cole, and I won't have you or Nat saying otherwise." If there was one thing Elia could pull rank on against the Captain and the Pilot - and would - was the health of the entire team. If he deemed certain members were not up to the challenge, the doctor would put his foot down and woe to the person who tried to get him to budge, whether it be an outside force or the patient themselves. Knowing Cole wasn't going to argue the point with him as they'd established the futility of that years ago, the doctor turned to Hitachi.....only to see the teen had already moved from the bed and was nearly at the door to leave. A pair of blue-green eyes turned in his direction without Elia having to utter a sound and the man resisted the urge to shiver.

Damn, the kid was almost creepy in the way he did that.

What was even more disturbing, though, was that Cole's news was met with no surprise by Hitachi. In fact, Elia could not remember a time when he'd EVER seen the child surprised by anything. Always the boy was calm, steady, never questioning or needing an explanation. He always just seemed to...know. Like Evvy, but...differently, too. The doctor wished he could assess that ability, question Hitachi, but Elia knew the boy would not comply with any of it. The ONLY time anyone had ever seen Hitachi even close to something other than serenely calm had been when they'd tried to get him into testing like the others. It was part of the reason they knew so little about him. He'd only submitted to the most rudimentary of check-ups and analysis and no one had been able to get him to do more.

So Elia put the idea away, just as he had in the past, and instead started to move after the teen, knowing Cole, Jack and Evvy would fall in behind him.

--

The episode passed just as soon as it had come. They always did and Kohe found her breathing regulating and more conscious thought coming back into her actions. Clearer mismatched eyes searched Tai's violet slowly, noting the things her sister would not want her to - like how truly tired her twin was, how guarded despite her sibling's best effort not to appear so. She saw how changed her little sister was in that moment...but also how familiar and despite herself, Kohe found comfort in just that knowledge alone. She let in a deep breath and finally relaxed, giving Tai a small smile. Perhaps the first in a while that was even close to being truly genuine even if it wasn't happy. "I'm all right, Mórán solais." she reassured softly before sitting up on her own.

A hand moved back through her untamed mane of black and white, and Kohe opened her mouth to say more - what that was, even she wasn't sure - but quickly shut it again when she sensed a presence on the stairs. Natalia was watching them, but had only been doing so for about half a minute, if that. Seeing she had their attention, the pilot simply spoke in her professional manner.

"Sterlings, you're required upstairs for a briefing. The others will meet us shortly."

Kohe glanced to Tai, perhaps out of reflex and in reminiscence of the times when they'd done everything together, always waiting for the cue from each other on when to speak and when to move. It didn't hurt anything now, but the elder twin found herself almost startled by easily such a habit came back. She looked away from her sister, mentally giving herself a shake. Tai didn't need that. She didn't need Kohe using her as a crutch - even if Tai would say it wasn't like that at all. Her sister was too kind for her own good sometimes. It was up to Kohe to know when the limit to that patience and willingness to help should be enforced.

Tai could not save her this time. Not from this nightmare and Kohe didn't want to burden her with the knowledge of it. Her twin would only desire to help them and would run herself ragged trying to be everything Koheera needed - an impossible feat. No, better that her sister not know...at least not yet. When Kohe could handle everything on her own without hiccups...then she'd tell her twin what had happened to her. Only then.

The elder sibling gave a sharp nod to the pilot. "We're on our way."

 

[DotCom]

Kohe was hurting and afraid -- desperately afraid, all the time -- and there was nothing remotely funny about that. But knelt there next to her twin, Tai was suddenly nearly overcome with a sudden, reflexive wave of nostalgia that warmed her in a way she hadn't felt in years. A small smile touched her face, and she started to say something. Then Kohe -- the person Kohe had become, that false rigidness she had assumed -- looked away, and the moment was gone.

Something close to irritation flashed across Tai's face as she followed her sister's gaze to the stairwell where the pilot waited, impassive. It was gone as soon as it had come, and perhaps it had never even been there. Tai had perfected her bedside manner far beyond the bedside, figurative or otherwise, and knew better than to take personal offense to someone in authority just doing their job. Indeed, Tai was not the type to begrudge anyone much of anything at all, or at least, she hadn't been. Not even intruding upon the first real moment between her and her twin sister in over three years.

Even so, her eyes remained on the pilot's face for just half an instant longer than was necessary, and unlike her sister, she did not give a military answer, or even acknowledge what the older woman had said aside from a small, thin smile. A shrewd (if paranoid) onlooker might have called it ingratiating.

When Tai looked back to Kohe, though, her gaze was nothing but warm and patient. She put a hand on her sister's elbow and grasped Kohe's free hand in her and stood slowly, bringing her twin with her.

"Ko', you don't have to go," Tai said lowly. "I outrank her, medically speaking. If I tell them you're not well enough to sit, they'd have to declare emergency status to get you up there." She peered close at Kohe's face, her expression a mixture of curious concern and tender admiration.

"Are you, Kohe? Well enough to sit the briefing?" There was another question there, one Tai couldn't voice, not yet, not here. One she already knew the answer to, and one she knew Kohe wouldn't give an answer to. Somewhere inside her, it made her stomach twist and fall in a combination of guilt and dread. But it made her determined, too, stubbornly so in a way she hadn't felt since...well. It was a sincere enough sensation, a deep-seated habitat no one but Kohe, and maybe one other person would recognize.

Tai already knew Kohe was going to sit the briefing, because her sister could be stubborn, too, in her own way, and because this new military personality would think it was her duty. This time, Tai carefully hid her thoughts from her face. She had seen what a sense of duty could do to a person, had known the scars it left ran just as deep as the war itself. But those were not musings for here or now.

Eventually, the violet-eyed twin sighed.

"You go," she said quietly. "I'll go get you something to drink. It will help with your headache."

She stared at Kohe a moment longer, wanting to hug her sister, feeling it was too...soon. She settled on squeezing her hand instead.

She never thought to explain how or why she knew Kohe wasn't feeling well. She wasn't sure she understood herself.

--

She caught them as they were leaving the medbay in a silent row, the strange white-haired boy at the front. He passed by Tai without a word, but she could feel his gaze on her as surely as one could a ray of sunlight after a long, dark winter. She smiled at him reflexively, her eyes studying his own, though she was careful not to return his heavy stare. There was, she had no doubt, something there. She'd have known it by now even if she hadn't seen he and Kohe embracing like old friends in the cryochamber. This went beyond a hunch or a gut feeling or any intuition of the natural or supernatural variety. This was a latent knowledge of the variety children are born with so they can breathe and cry and sleep. The boy was more to her than simply a charge, and vice versa. What, exactly, he was, she couldn't begin to fathom, and quite frankly, she did not have the time to worry about it. If the pilot's face had been troubled, then Cole's expression was downright troubled. There was something going on that was both more sinister and more immediate than the boy's relationship to her or Kohe.

That, of course, was assuming they were separate at all.

Any thoughts she might have had on the issue were soon lost to her as she passed the final pair out of the room. Cole had walked by without a word, the same way he had taken the doc's arguments, the same way he took most arguments, save perhaps Nat's. But when Jack walked by with a sleeping Evvy over his shoulder, the shifter's expression went from faintly amused as he glanced at the girl on his back...to a hardened sneer as he looked to the one in front of him. Again, Tai was struck by a familiarity she couldn't place, but it first sparked in her an irritation that was once again gone as soon as it had come.

"You need to come with me to the mess hall," she said evenly.

Jack was on instant alert. Eyes narrowed, he growled, "Why?"

"My sister needs water." And probably some nutritional supplements, but Tai didn't add that part. "You could use some, too."

He nodded his head back toward the medbay. "I just had plenty, thanks, doc."

Tai didn't rise to the bait, just replied calmly, "I'm not a doctor, Jack." Then, a little louder, "Cole, I need to get something for my sister from the mess hall. Jack will be accompanying me to help carry some supplement bars for the crew. Briefing focus won't last for long if everyone is still feeling nauseous."

Cole shrugged. "Is he bringing the girl?"

Jack's eyes went hard. "Yes."

Cole sighed. "You have two minutes. Understood?"

"Understood," Tai replied before Jack could refuse.

Cole watched them a moment longer, thinking he sensed a tension between them...then suddenly, inexplicably thinking this twin wasn't the type to create or endure tension. With a shake of his head, he turned and followed Doc and Hitachi up to the bridge.

--

Tai waited until Cole was gone to say, "Will you let me see your arm?" She was entirely unsurprised when Jack immediately grew defensive.

"I told you it's fine," he snarled. Tai only shrugged.

"It's a bad burn, Jack. It'll take at least a few weeks to heal on it's own, and that's if it doesn't get infected." Her gaze flicked briefly to Evvy, who was frowning a little, then back to Jack. "How do you think she's going to feel if it does? I mentioned just the burn to her and she -- "

"You what? Who the hell do you think you are?" Jack demanded. "I told you it was no big deal, so you -- what, go guilt trip a little kid? Why -- ?"

On his back, Evvy whimpered in her sleep and turned to bury her face in the crook of Jack's neck. Tai watched, vaguely intrigued by the way the tension melted from his body as he turned to look at the sleeping child. And in that moment, Tai stepped forward, wrapped her hand around Jack's arm as well as her fingers would allow, and squeezed.

Jack froze as he felt a wave of warmth pass up his arm and prepared to tense. If the pain had been dizzying before, her fingers, the heat -- Jack wasn't one to complain, but he felt his stomach lurch, and he was suddenly terrified he was going to puke right here in front of this nosy, stuck-up --

The pain vanished so suddenly, he felt his legs give way and put out an arm -- the burned arm? -- to steady himself against the wall. It was only when he felt Evvy begin to slide from his back that he remembered where he was and who he was with and what he'd been doing, and anything else beyond the pain.

Only the pain was gone now, and when Jack looked around, ready to comfort an Evvy he was certain he'd dropped on the floor, he found a strange brace of faint blue-silver light supporting him and Evvy both. He reached for her reflexively and immediately noticed the burn on his arm was gone as if it had never been there, the bright red flesh now returned to a natural sandy color. Even the headache that had been plaguing him since waking seemed magically reduced.

His eyes found the nosy twin's violet gaze without his meaning to and narrowed suspiciously.

"What did you do?" he demanded.

"Take her." For the first time -- or second, he supposed, considering how she'd reacted to finding the burn on his arm. Or that had been there -- her voice was beyond measured, polite. It was strained, bitten off at the end, as though she spoke through gritted teeth -- or pain. And looking at her, he could see she was paler, and a thin sheen of sweat marred her forehead. She appeared to be shaking a little, or perhaps just unsteady on her feet.

Eyes still narrowed, but more curious and less suspicious this time, Jack said, "What's wrong with you?"

"Take her," Tai said again, closing her eyes as briefly as she dared. Jack hesitated, then complied. Almost simultaneously, the light brace vanished, and the lights overhead brightened. Tai exhaled and stumbled a little, though she was careful to hide it from the shifter.

Jack looked up at the lights, then back at the other twin then down at Evvy, who had barely even stirred.

"What the hell -- "

"Take her to the briefing," Tai said. "Get her away from me." She sounded less strained now, but her voice was a little huskier. Tired, Jack thought, wondering From what exactly?.

"What about the mess hall?"

"I can get it myself. Go, J-- " Her breath hitched and she went acutely green. At the same time, Evvy moaned quietly at the back of her throat, her arms folding over her stomach. Tai didn't have to say anything else.

But as he disappeared down the hall to join the rest of the crew on the bridge, he glanced over his shoulder just in time to see Tai leaning against the wall, eyes closed as she tried not to gag. Jack watched, curious, interested, until she seemed to catch her breath and disappear, en route to the mess hall.

 

[Kaisaan]

Her sister had been correct in knowing Kohe wouldn't miss the briefing and on some level she wanted to laugh at Tai's words because, really, sitting and listening to their two leaders talk wasn't that great of a strenuous activity. She would hardy be running a marathon, but still, she understood her sister's underlying concern. The visions didn't need to be triggered by activity, merely by words, a phrase, a picture - anything really. Kohe wasn't going to let that run her life, though, and Tai knew that. And her sister suspected far more. The elder twin could see it in the way those violet eyes studied her, wanting so badly to ask, to press, to know and yet wise enough to know not to. That was Tai, though - always knowing what to say, when to say it, how to do it. Kohe had always been a bit envious of that, but she loved her sister no less for that small ping of healthy jealousy. If anything, it had made her closer to her sibling and far more protective.

Now, though, it made her nervous and she was glad when Tai simply accepted her decision and then left. The elder twin had never thought to experience the day when she'd be rather relieved to see the back of her sister's head fading from sight, but the years had changed a great deal....in both of them for Kohe had not missed Tai's reaction to Nat. Oh, her sister had hidden it quite well - a little too well - but Kohe KNEW her twin, no matter the distance or the changes, no matter the years or experiences. There would always be something in both of them, a connection that would allow them to see the deepest parts of the other's heart for what it truly was and Kohe had seen it now. Her younger twin was changed, just as she was and despite Koheera's hope that it had all been for the better on Tai's end, she was not so blinded by that hope that she couldn't see it wasn't true.

Still, it was a situation, a problem for another time. Kohe could at least recognize that and she instead turned her focus to following Nat to the briefing. Upon arriving, she noted that most of the members were already there; Kyle and Amber were on one couch, the male quietly talking while the female tried futilely to shush him. Elia was standing, arms crossed by the window that looked out into space and Sefa was closer to him on the opposite side of the thick pane of plastic. Kenya was with Kyle and Amber, looking rather amused by their antics and Kyle wasn't shy to include Kenya in the banter. The three seemed to get along rather well. Cole was in the center of the room, near the table they often used to show holographic images. Nat joined him there upon entering the chamber, belonging no where else but at his side. Her sister was not yet present, something that didn't surprise Kohe, but Jack and Evvy were entering from the hall promptly behind her and she quickly moved aside, avoiding looking at the male, though, her eyes glanced at Evvy upon his back with a faint worry - something that surprised even her.

What did not surprise her, however, was how her eyes were instantly drawn to Hitachi after that. Sitting on a couch on his own, the boy's blue-green eyes had been on her the whole time and now they silently seemed to beckon, drawing her to where he was. Sitting beside the teen didn't feel strange in the least, nor did it faze her when he moved to lean against her side and her arm moved around his shoulders, fingers finding his hair and gently brushing through it. What she didn't expect, what she noted this time, was the wide-eyed (and on Kyle's part, slack-jawed) expressions that many were giving her and the white-haired teen. Hitachi didn't seem to notice or otherwise didn't care, but it made Kohe wonder a bit and she frowned just slightly down at the boy before looking back up to the others - this time with an almost warning glare.

It seemed to startle them as much as her own protectiveness surprised her, but Kohe didn't relent until most of them had looked away. Nat was not one of them, her expression calculating, studying. This was a puzzle she'd yet to see and it was one she instantly wanted to solve. None of them had seen Hitachi behave in such a manner and none of them knew anything about the twins - to have the two things overlap...well, it raised questions.

But those were better left for another time. They had enough to deal with right now.

The pilot looked instead to Cole, raising a brow. "Is T-Sterling going to be joining us or shall we start without her?" They were both still not entirely sure what they were going to tell the crew and Nat still wasn't happy that they were having this briefing at all, but she trusted Cole and she'd trust his judgement in this as well.

 

[DotCom]

Cole watched his crew enter the briefing room one by one, keenly aware of the nearly palpable, very disparate tensions -- or lack thereof -- around him. In one corner, tucked under the eastern viewing panel, Amber, Kyle, and Kenya sat together, each playing their roles as mere moments had separated them instead of three years and a few dozen lightyears. Kyle was going on about some story from his youth Cole was certain was exaggerated, his face jumping between animated versions of shock, horror, awe, while Amber, faintly embarrassed and amused, tried to get him to shut up. And Kenya sat above them both, long, lean legs dangling just right of Amber's shoulder from where the spunky meteorologist was perched on the back of the couch. She watched them both with a grin on her face -- and Sefa, across the room in a moody silence, watched her.

The quieter members of his crew (and Jack) entered next, just seconds Nat joined at his side, all of them without a word. Jack was still carrying Evvy, which bothered Cole for more reason than one, though he said nothing. The girl was utterly devoted to the kid, everyone knew that. What was less common knowledge was that the sullen shifter depended just as much on the girl for stability as she did on him. Cole knew because it was his job to know. Nat knew because Nat liked to know everything. He suspected Elia knew in a way that might have been called a competitive nature in anyone else. And Evvy knew, though she didn't know she knew.

Last of all, and by far most surprising, were Hitachi and the elder of the Sterling twins. More telling than the action of the two sitting side-by-side like old friends were the reactions of his crew, from quizzical stupefaction on Kyle's part to more shrewd and quiet suspicion from Nat. Cole, while curious, decided at that moment to occupy his mind with more practical questions. He was the crew leader, the captain, and been hired to protect his people as much as lead them. A good portion of his job was understanding his crew, particularly these two newest recruit. But understanding would not come without trust, and while it was too early to share everything with them, he had no intention of keeping them completely in the dark.

The question, however, remained: what was he going to tell them? And how?

Nat's question, spoken aloud, came before Cole could begin to answer his, and before he could begin to answer hers, the twin in question appeared.

"I'm here," said Tai from the door. She carried a plastic milk crate in her arms, filled with silver foil-wrapped packets and unlabled white cardboard boxes. She set the crate down on the table at the center of the room and glanced briefly at Elia before proceeding. "I brought..." she gestured to the basket and shrugged. Cole thought maybe she looked a little pale, but when she looked at him -- in a sudden, almost eerie way, like she'd heard what he was thinking -- she flashed a smile, and the thought was gone.

"Fruit juice," Tai went on, pulling out one of the white boxes, a little larger than old fashioned juice boxes back on earth. "It's enhanced with electrolytes and a little extra fiber, but it's got natural sugar and some ginger to cover the taste. It'll help with headaches, nausea, shakiness. It...you'll feel better." She maybe looked at her twin, but the glance was so fleeting, Cole thought he'd maybe imagined it. She started setting some of the boxes on the table. "Orange, cranberry, grapes. Sefa, these three are cherry," she added, remembering about the allergy she'd uncovered in his files.

"Fortunately they're labeled," he muttered, but he still came forward to select a non-cherry box and a silver packet. "What're these?"

Tai smiled, and it was almost genuine. It would fool most of them. Maybe even her sister. "Saltines."

Kenya grinned. "Old school. Nice. Apple juice?" Tai tossed her a box and then handed one to Jack, who was still staring at her like he expected her to sprout an extra head. Tai pretended not to notice, giving him her best nurse's smile.

"She should drink one, too," she said lightly. "So should you."

"I can handle it."

Tai nodded just once. "Okay," she said. And then cautiously, carefully, went to join her sister on the couch.

Cole watched it all unfold taking silent notes to review later in the privacy of his cot. Elia didn't want to budge on training...but he suspected there was more going on than the issue at hand, which was already looming large in his vision.

"First things first," he started. "I know an update on stations from each of you." He looked at Elia. "Medical first."