Chapter Text
Although Chief Engineer Tangent was always trying to get everything done as soon as possible, it was still a rare sight to see her actively hurrying to get somewhere, but on this occasion she had forgotten about a meeting she had with the Governor and was going to be late. Not really late enough to cause problems, but it irked her nonetheless. Walking as quickly as she could without looking ridiculous, she made her way from Engineering across the colony to the Command meeting room where Governor Marzipan was waiting.
In the end, she made it to Command precisely three minutes and twenty-four seconds late. With a sigh, she pushed open the door. For a moment, she could only make out shadows as the mid-dust suns were streaming right through the back window, and Tangent was admittedly not accustomed to strong sunlight. A voice called her from further in.
"Hi Tang! I told you she would come. I'm the governor. She can't just ignore me anymore."
- that was Marz, then, and someone else. Tangent had assumed the meeting was between the two of them alone. Shielding her eyes, she made her way to her seat, then glanced across the room. Marzipan was, as usual, perched in her governor's chair (that was not a throne, according to Marz), wearing one of her more casual outfits, a simple combination of a white shirt and black trousers - although her hair and makeup were still carefully arranged to the extent that Tangent wondered how she was able to spend so much time on her appearance and be governor. Tangent herself struggled with just doing her work and remembering to eat and sleep and stay relatively active.
Tangent had to squint to see who the other person in the room was.
"Sol?" Tangent inquired, still unable to see properly.
"Hey Tang!" Their voice was chirpy, more so than usual. Something was up. "Sorry I didn't tell you I had a meeting before I left our quarters, I didn't know you would be there too..." They only overexplain like that when they're nervous. Why?
"Do you know what the meeting is about?" Tangent asked, allowing the slightest hint of suspicion to enter her voice.
Sol and Marz exchanged a look. As Tangent's partner and previous-lover-turned-self-proclaimed-best-friend, the two of them frequently schemed together to force Tangent to do annoying things like celebrate her birthday or go outside. Were they scheming now? Or was this really just a meeting that involved the Governor, Chief Engineer and Chief Surveyor? "I'll explain in just a moment, Tang, okay?", Marz drawled in her most disarming voice. "Just take a seat, please."
Suspending her disbelief for the time being, she walked over to her council seat and sat, waiting for Marz to start the meeting. There was awkward silence for a minute
"Sorry", Marz explained with the ghost of a smile on her lips "We're just... waiting for some other-"
The door opened with a pneumatic hiss. A very tall figure, mostly obscured by dark clothes and dark hair, strode into the room with unnaturally equal strides. He blinked rapidly as he entered, but didn't seem too bothered by the sunlight.
Symbiosis.
Tangent bristled slightly. Although the war against humans had ended five years ago, and Symbiosis (she refused to think of him by his nickname. It unnerved her how easily he picked up human conventions) had very much been against the destruction of humanity, she still felt unnerved around him. She still felt a sense of wrongness whenever she saw him.
It was in the way he walked, almost seeming to float, his proportions far too elegant to be human, his whole body more lanky and delicate than should be possible. In the purr of his voice, getting inflections all wrong, sounding like an alien or an AI because he was both, the way that accent was slowly starting to fade as he spoke more often and to more people, the way his default expression was vague amusement at all the silly humans living and dying and growing in a process that he was entirely removed from. Then there was whatever the hell was going on with his hair, not to mention his eyes, and the way he could vanish into the wilderness at a moment's notice.
And there was the fact that he had more or less stolen her brother from the humans who had raised him. Not that Tangent cared.
Unfortunately, given that Symbiosis was the Gardener's ambassador to the Vertumnan colony, and Sol was the human ambassador to the Gardeners, she saw way more of him than she would ever want to.
Her thoughts were interrupted when Symbiosis paused on his way to his seat, half turned back towards the hallway, and tilted his head towards the back of the room. He was presumably signalling to someone in the corridor that they should come in. Where had he picked that up? From Sol? Or maybe he'd the gesture in a holovid, or learnt it from-
A second person entered the room.
The first thing about him that people tended to notice was his hair, which likely hadn't been cut in years, and as a result, went in every possible direction. The only part of it that was styled in any way was a strip near his face that had been sectioned off and covered with hair chalks by Nomination a few years back. For some unknown reason, the look had appealed to him, and now the strips of colour were made of actual dye. His eyes were more or less hidden behind his fringe. Today, the flower tucked behind his ear was yellow, the kind Sol liked to give to Tangent in attempts to be romantic. He had a tattoo trailing down his arm. His clothes were a bizarre amalgamation of robotic armour, gauntlets that basically replaced his holopalm, surveyor clothes and equipment, and random colourful items that had caught his eye and clashed horrendously (as Marzipan had given up pointing out).
His name was Dysthemia, a strange result of their mother's mental state, but he went exclusively by the nickname Dys. He was Tangent's fraternal twin brother, he could still be Second Surveyor if he was anything vaguely resembling reliable, and Sol knew him better than she did. It used to hurt her, but by now, she was used to it.
Dys paused on the threshold. His eyes narrowed, then darted around the room. Perhaps he was thinking of running away rather than having to face Marzipan. Even though Marz seemed to have mostly forgotten about how she teased Dys as a child, he clearly remembered, and usually avoided her if he could help it.
But he seemed to decide against it, instead scurrying to Symbiosis' side.
"Dys, you can sit next to Sym for now, since you don't have an official council seat." Marz ordered, not unkindly.
"And the windows are locked. Don't even think about it." Sol joked, although Tangent wouldn't really put escaping out of a window past her brother.
Dys blinked once and made no move to go anywhere until Symbiosis gently took his hand and pulled him towards their seats. As they sat, Symbiosis settling into his chair gracefully and Dys practically falling into his, Marz cleared her throat and spoke in her regal "Governor voice", although Tangent could hear amusement behind her words.
"I'm sure you're wondering why I've summoned you here today."
Tangent spoke up. "I was told I needed to be consulted about integrating Gardener technology into Engineering."
Dys frowned. "Sym said Sol needed another Surveyor here for backup. Something about a dispute regarding the new colony". His voice broke slightly, as if he was nervous, or unaccustomed to speaking loudly.
Marz smiled. "Yes, well, I do need help regarding those problems, but!" She gestured towards Tangent and Dys. "If I were to order you guys to work it out right now, you'd just fight a bunch, or Dys would run away, and nothing would get done. So! That leaves me with no choice but to make you get along."
There was a stunned silence from both twins.
For a moment, Tangent just sat there, utterly unable to challenge whatever Marz was getting at. Eventually, she managed to say something. "You have no right, Marzipan! You can't use your power to meddle in our business, that's illegal. "
Marz's smile widened. "But I have professional reasons, rest assured." She addressed each of the unfortunate attendees in turn. "Tangent, you need to stop being so afraid of Sym."
"I'm not-" Tangent began, but was cut off.
"Sym, you need to understand people better." Symbiosis nodded.
"Dys, you need to stop hating humanity in general so much." Dys didn't reply, only glared at Marz.
"And Sol, I'm sick of listening to you complain about how the twins don't talk." Sol smiled sheepishly.
"So. I talked to Sol and Sym, and they agreed that something needed to be done." Now Dys turned his withering gaze on Symbiosis, who stared back unflinchingly. Meanwhile, Tangent glanced across at Sol, who shrugged. A moment later, her holopalm pulsed. Sorry. Tangent sighed. You're lucky I like you, she sent back, then looked up as Marz continued.
"We disagreed on what would be the best idea, and then we remembered something! Which is that I can't afford to lose Dys, Sol and Sym, in case anything happens with the Gardeners, but I can more or less spare you, Tangent, and get Instance to do her job again for a week." Tangent grimaced. Poor Instance. "So naturally, we could send you all on a wonderful family holiday, so long as it was in a place where Sol, Dys, and Sym could still work!" Marz concluded.
Tangent felt dread settle in the pit of her stomach as she put together what was coming next.
"So, by order of the Vertumnan Colony, as Governor, by the powers vested in me, et cetera, I order you, Tangent, Dys, Sol and - Sym, I'm not really your boss but I'm ordering you too - to go have a nice family camping trip in the wilds."
Immediately, Tangent and Dys both rose out of their seats to argue their way out of this. There was no way this was going ahead.
52 hours later
Tangent dropped the handle of the wagon and fished out her canteen, taking a sip of cold blep tea in a likely futile attempt to stay hydrated. Behind her, she could hear Sol doing the same, although their canteen was filled with water. Tangent felt a little guilty about giving them the more difficult task of pushing the wagon from behind, but Sol was physically stronger than her. And it was Sol's fault that they were here in the first place. They should have known that it's impossible to argue with Marz and never given her this idea in the first place. Overhead, the twin suns (hah) blazed fiercely overhead. The mushtrees were an orangish-yellow colour this time of year, and the ground was covered in what Sol insisted on calling "Tangent flowers." Occasionally, an animal would call out in the distance, but so far, there had been no sign of any xenos yet.
Ahead, Dys and Symbiosis walked side by side. Symbiosis hummed as he walked. Sometimes, when the two drifted closer to her, Tangent could identify the tunes, which ranged from heavy metal to classical music to pop songs and even musical theatre. Tangent wondered if he had a music taste or just imitated whatever humans around him liked. Dys’s expression could only be described as murderous. He only had a backpack with him, and Symbiosis only carried a light tent. The two seemed confident that they could more or less live off the land, as Sol put it. In contrast, Tangent had brought enough food for the whole trip, a more sturdy tent, lights, sensors, tools, and devices to take readings and samples in case any interesting creature appeared. All of that combined with Sol's things meant they had to bring a wagon. It was supposed to propel itself with robotic legs, but the terrain had seemingly defeated it, and so it had to be pushed along the trail. The two groups kept within sight of each other, but so far didn't speak. Interestingly, every now and then, Symbiosis would suddenly tense, and then spring off into the wilderness. At first, Tangent assumed he was doing Gardener duties (whatever that entailed), but on more than one occasion he just ran ahead, scrambled up a mushtree and stayed there until Dys came past, at which point he would climb down and walk with Dys until something compelled him to run off again.
Once Tangent and Sol were done drinking, Symbiosis wandered over to the group. He mercifully didn't approach Tangent, but instead began chatting to Sol about a manticore he had seen around here last week. Symbiosis and Sol's conversations were always weird, though. In this case, Symbiosis asked if Sol thought the manticore would be a problem, and Sol said, literally, "I think I'd remember that." At this point, Tangent had learned not to question the nonsensical things Sol said. They were probably just part and parcel of Sol's amazingly terrible sense of humour, an unfortunate consequence of being raised by Geranium that had grown on Tangent over time. Like mould.
After he was done talking to Sol, Sym wandered off again, walking into a copse of mushtrees and literally disappearing.
A few minutes later, a long hooting call floated over the canopy. An airsquid's greeting call? But something about it sounded off, less sharp. Tangent was wondering if she should worry when Dys whistled back a similar call. A moment later, a reply came back. Was it Symbiosis making the calls? Behind her, Sol answered with their own call, a slightly different melody. Definitely Symbiosis, then. He called back after a couple of seconds, repeating whatever Sol had said, which made them smile, and after that, the three continued to call to each other every couple of minutes as they walked. Irrationally, Tangent felt a desire to tell them all to shut up and speak like humans if they wanted to talk, and not in some airsquid language she didn't understand, but refrained, any instead busied herself with studying Sol and Dys's reactions to each message, usually a smile or slight relief. About thirty minutes into the exchange, Dys whistled a short note, and Sym didn't reply. A farewell? Tangent breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe now she could relax.
She had spoken too soon. Four minutes later, a loud, high-pitched and melodic reply startled her out of her newfound peace. Sol and Dys both stopped in their tracks. There was a moment of silence, and Tangent wondered if it was a distress call and they should start running.
And then behind her, Sol burst out laughing, for some reason. Tangent glanced at Dys, who was very studiously looking at his feet, avoiding eye contact with Sol, which only made them giggle harder.
Tangent frowned. What had Sym said? Why did they have to do this? Why couldn't she know what they were saying? Were they leaving her out on purpose?
But the more rational part of her brain knew that they were just sharing in something she had chosen not to be a part of.
It was dusk by the time they reached the first camping spot, a low clearing near the Prosaic Plains. Sol and Dys poked around a bit, checking that the area was suitable, while Tangent stayed by the wagon and watched Symbiosis disappear and reappear out of the foliage. Once the two surveyors had proclaimed the area sufficient, Tangent and Sol set up their tent, rigged the security system, set up the lights, and ate a quick meal of soybar rations. A healthy distance away, Dys set up his tent and ate his dinner (also a soybar). Symbiosis helped both groups set up, but when time came to sleep, he bid everyone goodnight and promptly vanished. Dys retreated into his tent almost immediately, and then it was just Sol and Tangent.
At first Tang stared at the ground for a while, not really sure what to say. She really didn't want to be here, but if Sol was having fun, she didn't want to ruin it for the sake of complaining.
It was Sol who surprised her by speaking first. "I'm sorry if you felt left out. I'm so used to being out here with Dys and Sym that it comes more naturally to me to talk to them, I guess."
Sol was not a particularly empathetic person, but sometimes, they seem to know exactly what a person is thinking. Even if it wasn’t what someone was actively thinking about.
"I know." Tangent sighed. "I'm just more used to being in the colony. Avoiding Sym. Dys avoiding me."
Sol smiles. "Well, that's why we're here. You never know. You might become friends again."
Tangent wrinkled her nose in mock disgust.
"I know! But it'll be fun. There's so much cool stuff to show you. Like pools and balneals and bushbubs and all the different types of antler ferns and- and bounceweasals! They're so cute. And so very vicious" Sol began to laugh, but it slowly stretched into an exhausted yawn.
"Well. Sleepytime for us mere mortals." They pressed a soft kiss to Tangent's cheek, then crawled inside the tent.
Tangent watched them go, smiling despite herself, then looked up to watch the darkening sky. It would be a long time before her augment allowed her to sleep, if her brain permitted it at all.
The wormhole was far away at this time of year, a smudge of purple floating far away. The sky was dotted with many small splashes of colour and light. None of them had been matched to stars visible from Earth yet. Nobody actually knew where the colony actually was, in terms of space.
Maybe it didn't matter.
For now, Tangent simply existed, staring up at the stars.