Page 16 of Argurma Warrior (The Argurma Chronicles #1)

A lthough Kaylar calculated that the main floor would not yield much, it was a logical place to move onto with Meg to ease them into the routine of searching so that he could demonstrate what to look for. He had attempted to do so on the residential floor the day before but each of the quarters had been near barren of anything useful aside from a small supply of copper wiring. It was unfortunate but ultimately conveyed that even with a residential area provided that those who stayed there were temporary guests. The room had been clearly occupied when the laboratory was suddenly abandoned, for reasons he could not calculate.

The moment that she arrived, they would begin. If she arrived. Yesterday he had gone up to her since they were working on that floor but today required that she come to him. He had heard the trace of uncertainty in her voice when he’d summoned her down over the intercom system. He processed that this would be a challenge to her but it was one that he was confident that she would overcome. She was stronger than her fear of the unit. And determined to cling to him like a trained racari. His mouth quirked at the comparison to the small Argurumal mammal that was frequently enjoyed as a pet—most often by the females who enjoyed having the furry creatures chittering as they clung to them with all six of their agile limbs.

Meg has the perseverance of one as well as its soft features and capability to chitter endlessly. He calculated that she would enjoy such a creature, as well, as a kindred-spirit, though he had never processed the charm of such creatures until meeting the small human female. What he found annoying in them, he found to be illogically charming in her. Especially that stubbornness that guaranteed that, fearful or not, she would be there.

He glanced at the elevation unit and smirked as the number began to mark its decent. She was coming. The mechanical whirl of the elevation slowed and came to a stop, the unit bracing as the doors prepared to draw back. They began to slide open and Kaylar chuffed in amusement as Meg suddenly burst out of the unit before the doors even had the opportunity to open fully. Her breathing puffing in and out of her anxiously, she skidded to a stop, sought him out and promptly headed toward him with an unmistakable look of relief that became yet another that was encoded permanently in his databases. He did not know how many he had recorded at various moments, but each of them was something he found worth capturing, a moment of pure emotion that he wanted to keep close to him. Even her scowls and mocking smiles she had treated him to the day before.

“Reporting for duty, boss,” she chirped, unknowingly very much like a racari, as she smiled breathlessly up at him.

Keeping firm hold of his composure, his far less malleable brow rose as he looked down at her. “You are well?”

She glanced down at herself as if suspecting that there was something she needed to hunt out that provoked his question before looking back up at him with a tiny smile as she shrugged. “I seem to be all here and presentable. Is there something out of place that I don’t know about?”

He chuffed and shook his head, his vibrissae lifting and twining slightly as they shook around him with the motion. Insolent things. “You appear to have survived, despite all appearances of fleeing from the jaws of death just now.”

A pink hue rose in her cheeks as she glanced back at the elevation unit. “Yeah, well, I don’t think I did too bad all considering. It’s going to take me a bit to trust that thing.”

He chuffed again. “It is a machine. You are not required to trust it. Trust the male whose duty it was to check it.”

A smile pulled at her lips. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right, and you’ve been pretty clear that you’re not letting anything happen to me.”

“Accurate. Now, are you ready for the morning meal or do you require a moment to recover from your ordeal?” he inquired with a feigned innocence that drew a soft laugh from her.

“All right, very funny. You’ve made your point,” she chastened him around chuckles as she rolled her eyes upward in a ridiculously charming human expression. “I can rehydrate some eggs. The instructions as I was looking at them yesterday seemed pretty simple.”

“I calculate that it will be preferable to the flat sweet bread,” he muttered, his vibrissae shriveling slightly at the memory of the taste.

Meg glanced up at him from the corner of her eye and her lips pressed together with contained amusement. “You didn’t seem to be a fan of pancakes, which I really don’t understand. Especially since the mix was blueberry pancakes. Who doesn’t like that?”

“Slimy eyes of some small, deceased creature in sweet but otherwise flavorless, mushy flat bread drenched in sticky sweet sauce. I cannot compute who would like it,” he replied with another visible shudder.

Cupping a hand over her mouth to smother a laugh, Meg shook her head and cleared her throat before lowering her arm to side once more with a telling grin. “Alright no mushy eye-bread for you. Got it. We will get some protein in you like every growing boy needs.”

He scrutinized her, uncertain if she was jesting or not. “I assure you that I am a mature male. I am at my maximum height which is optimal for my species.”

“Ouf,” she huffed with a shake of her head, the corner of her lips inching higher as her smile widened. “My mistake.”

He grunted, processing now that she was indeed jesting and relaxed. “Protein is good for keeping the neurocircuitry in optimal condition,” he allowed.

“Rehydrated eggs it is, then!”

As it turned out, the mass of salted and cooked yellow eggs did appeal to his palate and sensory systems. Meg hovered over the stove, cooking what he processed to be ridiculous quantities that he consumed at a mass that was abnormal even for him. He did not normally calorie-load, but it was only this once, so he computed it as merely a curious abnormal occurrence and dismissed it. Clearly, it was a meal that well satiated him. And Meg noticed as well because she beamed at him in pleasure when he finally waved away an offering of another helping of eggs.

“Well, I think we can safely say that you enjoyed that one,” she commented in a light voice as she took her seat beside him and quickly consumed her own meal.

He frowned as he watched her eat, processing that he only now noticed that she had not yet eaten herself. He had been that over involved in his calorie-loading that he had failed to notice. “You should not have waited on me. I could have procured more for myself while you ate.”

Meg waved his comment aside with her utensil. “Don’t be silly. It’s not like you can eat forever and since I was already at the stove, it just made sense for me to keep at it until you were done. I still sat down to a hot meal and it’s not like you are rushing me,” she added.

He grunted and settled back, his mandibles stretching and rubbing subtly along his cheekbones. He shifted his position in his chair to relieve the pressure against his civix’s sheath. There had been some small pressure that morning when he woke that had persisted from the day before, but to his surprise he currently felt engorged. Despite his discomfort, he ignored the sensation and waited patiently until she finished eating before he saw to dutifully cleaning their dishes. It was a small gesture and he completed it faster, so it was a small trade off for the fact that Meg cooked without complaint for their every meal.

He was capable… he just appreciated what she made more because she worked hard to make it for him . Why that fact affected him so was just another thing he was struggling to compute in all the recent changes ongoing in his systems and his physiology.

Meg stretched as she joined his side, her full rounded breasts rising and straining against her body armor. It was enticing and erotic… and he immediately dragged his eyes away before he started recording that gesture as well. What he already had stored in his database was enough to get a severe recalibration from his handler.

“Where do you want to start?” she inquired as they left the kitchen, her gaze skimming the room designated cafeteria. “I don’t think anything in here will do us any good.”

He grunted and shook his head, his mandibles clicking in irritation. “The table surfaces are steel but inferior quality. I would need a high temperature smelter to make them useful.”

“Okay, so no tables,” she agreed. “Well, there should be supply and storage rooms nearby. It may be a good place to start. There may be spare wires and such at least, if nothing else.”

Kaylar rumbled in agreement as they stepped out of the cafeteria into the lobby hall and split up, heading down different directions down the long hall. Though he was walking away from the human, who kept his scanners open, maintaining awareness of her exact location as she busily—and loudly—set to work. After several minutes, her voice followed him as she began to sing some nonsensical song, but he strangely found the corners of his mouth lifting in response as he cracked open the door nearest to him. The room was filled with chairs and though they were clustered around long, narrow tables like in the cafeteria, these tables were not made of metal but some sort of thicker, useless material that had him sighing, and all of the chairs appeared to face a podium at the far end of the room.

Curious, he swiped his hand over his com and brought up the holographic schematic, its green light casting a glow through the room. Conference room A. Ah, it was similar to the briefing rooms he often met his handler in. He did not have much hope of finding anything useful in there.

Sure enough, as he looked around, he came across several writing implements that seemed to be designated for the large white board on the wall behind the podium. In the end, he stepped out of the room empty-handed only to be greeted by a jubilant sound from the female down the corridor. His head snapped toward the sound, his vibrissae rising with curiosity, the length wiggling subtly in an attempt to draw the trace of the female’s chemical trails into his systems. Without thought, he headed toward her location and stopped as he witnessed her rounded rump sticking out of a small storage room. It wiggled enticingly from side to side as she made a soft exclamation and something within the unit shifted and slid with a clatter.

“Shit!” her muffled curse met his ears and his lips twitched again on their own volition.

“What have you found?” he asked.

Her muscles tightened, her entire body jerking as she jumped in surprise at the unexpected proximity of his voice. He frowned at the sound of impact, and she swore again, and this time he was certain it was due to damage accidentally inflicted upon herself from his carelessness.

“Meg? Are you damaged?”

“No,” she whimpered. “I mean, a little. I didn’t hear you sneak up behind me and hit my head on this damned shelf,” she amended, easing back from the unit until her bottom eased back to rest on her heels.

He tore his gaze away from the sight as his civix twitched again, this time more insistently, and peered into the tiny room.

“I heard you from down the corridor. Did you find anything of interest?”

She smiled awkwardly over her shoulder and shrugged. “It depends on what you consider of interest. Useful? Not really. Something pretty cool—well to me, anyway—most definitely.”

He cocked his head as she stood in a half-crouch, her ass lifting enticingly into the air again as she dragged a large box out brimming with… colorful ornamentation? He looked at it curiously. There were numerous strings of electrical bulbs tangled together, and among them various ornaments on hooks, long glittering garlands, and various figures that resembled strange quadrupeds with peculiar horn formations jutting from their heads and rotund aged males dressed in red. The latter seemed to be the most numerous of the figures and he wondered if it possessed some sort of spiritual or a perceived magical use to a primitive human mind. Little gods of fertility or prosperity perhaps. He recalled that the inhabitants of Kel Dezeran had a similar rounded figure with numerous teats and hands presented for suppliants. These little men lacked the beauty of that figure, but he processed that it may have a similar designation.

“It is very… colorful,” he hedged diplomatically, not wishing to offer unintentional insult.

Her smile widened, the corners of her eyes crinkling faintly. “Well yeah, they’re winter holiday decorations. My family always celebrated a little something roughly around midwinter since we did not have a calendar and grandfather regaled us with stories of celebrations in his youth. I remember decorating the house with these little decorations,” she added, brushing a finger along the glossy side of one of the little red men. “We didn’t have a tree like those he spoke of, and these here,” she said point to the string of bulbs, “apparently would have been used to light up the trees, but we would hang the little ornaments everywhere to bring a sense of festive joy while Mother attempted to make a small feast for us to share together from our supplies. It was a happy time, and father would pull out whatever small thing he found or had been working on making for us as gifts.”

“A seasonal gifting festival,” he murmured. “And these little men? They are gods of the season?”

She chuckled and shook her head, dropping the small figure back into the box where it clinked against the other decorations as she shoved the box back into the storage unit. “Not really. They were more symbolic, I believe. An idea of a festive spirit. I never really understood the stories too well, but it was difficult to imagine that world grandfather left behind, I suppose. The best I can imagine is that they did not possess spiritual significance but made people, especially children, happy for a brief time during the darkest month.”

“That is an admirable purpose, even for something as small as a symbol,” Kaylar observed, peering at the little figure, now barely visible in the box since it was returned to the storage unit, with new interest and appreciation.

“Yeah, I think so,” she agreed, brushing her hands off on her legs as she stood. “Unfortunately, nothing that looks like what you need for repairs.”

“I calculated as much,” he agreed, turning away from the unit as she closed the door. “We will keep searching, regardless, and clear this floor so that we do not potentially miss something.”

“All right,” she agreed as she turned another smile in his direction that warmed places within him that seemed cold and lifeless before. “Let’s get to it then.”

With a dip of his head, he returned to his end of the hall, suddenly disliking the distance between them even more than he had moments earlier. He strained to hear her every breath and murmur as she worked from the opposite end, his vibrissae lifting at random as if it curled around the trace of pheromones that drifted through the air. The distractions were worrisome as he worked, but he focused on his task. Tomorrow they would begin to venture into the labs within the lower floors once they verified that there was nothing useful to his repairs. Regardless, he processed with high certainty that he would find what he sought somewhere among those numerous levels and rooms down there.

His malfunctions were only a minor concern at the moment, but he would hasten repairs as much as he could before the female’s presence irrevocably affected him. Pressing a hand against his genital sheath in an attempt to calm his civix, Kaylar stepped into another room, determined to excise the tension running through him with wearying labor. Anything to take the edge off.