Dom sighed and looked down. "Well... guess you gotta do what you gotta do, James." She stepped forward and gave him a hug, whether or not he was expecting it, then stepped to the side to give Tarran one as well before returning to her previous spot, crossing her arms over her stomach. "I'm going to miss you guys. Take care, all right?" She smiled, a bit forlornly. "I'm not going to be around to patch you up, so don't be taking any unnecessary risks."
Tarran, struggling to think of something to say, takes his hug stoically. "Thank you Dom," Tarran begins, slowly picking his way through the words, "but, well I don't know quite how to say this... What the
fuck happened? I thought you were going to kill yourself trying to save Taric, then a bunch of immortals show up and, instead of shooting, tell us that you're alright. Now you show up, with Taric, and I have no idea what's going on."
Hoke, startled by Tarran's near shouted obscenity, sits up suddenly. He looks blearily at Dom and blinks a couple times. "I was just having this exact same dream, except there was nobody else here, we were both naked, and you were my landlady from back in flightschool. You clean up a nice, kid."
Taric coughs into the ensuing silence. "Well, Hoke's landlady aside, the short answer to your question, Tarran, is that we won. Well, I won, and Dominique helped some too. The Father is gone from this particular facility, and I have supplanted him. Good guys and gal win, bad abominations lose. That's about it." He shrugs. "Now, I'm not going to hug any of you. James because, honestly, you still reek of that rotting pond you went wading through. Tarran, well, we both know that there was something between us, but... it would just be too painful to acknowledge it as we part. I'm sorry." Tarran growls and Sizier smirks. "Anyway, I do have gifts in lieu of hugs. James, I actually did a tiny bit of digging on Technocrat fungal research, and this," Taric says as he produces a small amber bottle from his pocket, "should help you. It's a mixture of fungicide and ORS bacterium, not enough to kill what you've got up there, but, if I got the dosage right, it should be enough to sterilize it and permanently halt its spread." Taric tosses the bottle to James. "Use it in good health. Now, Tarran, I didn't exactly know what to get for you, so I made something rather unique." Taric pauses and reaches into an interior pocket of his uniform, drawing out an unremarkable metal disc. "Mono-pulse broadwave beacon. For one time, and one time only, you can call me. I may not come personally, but I will send what I can spare to help you, and I'll send it as soon as I can," Taric says as he carefully gives the metal disk to Tarran. "Hoke... I can't say that we always got along, but you look a bit silly without a ship. To you, and in equal parts to James and Tarran, I give the Virtue. I don't have any need of it right now, and I have other, if less expensive, ships." Taric pauses, then cuffs himself on the forehead. "By the way, Dominique, this is Hoke wearing a deadhead," Sizier explains, gesturing broadly at the recently woken, and now quite stunned, clone.
Tarran looks at the metal disc that Taric just handed him, his expression somewhat startled. "I... thanks," he says simply, extending his hand to Taric.
"You're welcome," Taric says as he slowly shakes Tarran's hand, his expression turning a little sad. "Well, any of you kids have anything else to say to each other before I turn you loose?"
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Topic: Deviation-22. The End of All Things. (Read 537338 times)