fandomhigh | Fandom High Welcome Picnic, Front Lawn of the School, All Day: Part II

Fleet Captain?

"Has anyone told you about alternative universes yet?"

Breq couldn't help wondering in what kind of universe anyone resembling her would be a Fleet Captain. It was a good thing Tisarwat had left out the house name.

"Events diverge in universes, creating a multiverse. People arrive her from similar or very different universes, at different points in time. That might be it."

That would, Tisarwat supposed, explain why, the more she looked at Breq, the more she started to realize that although she did look like Fleet Captain, she was different. Younger, for one, and it was more than just the strange clothes, too.

Still, the thing with alternative universes was that the more you thought about it, the more you wish you hadn't. She was quiet for a long time as she tried to work her way through some of it and tried to ignore, for now, some of the implications and all sorts of ideas about chain reaction and ripple effects.

Was she saying they she could actually be from the past? Was this Fleet Captain before she was Fleet Captain? Before, maybe, she'd even started on her crusade against...her?

Implications. Chain reactions. Ripple effects. Maybe Tisarwat herself had been sent into the past...but why? To what purpose? Radchaai didn't believe in coincidences...

"So you think...." she finally ventured, still sounding uncertain about it as she lifted her eyes from the table to look at Fleet Cap-- ...Breq---....her again, "maybe we're from the same universe, but just at different times? Or...maybe even different realities all together?"

Because, sure, she didn't have enough to unpack about this whole thing.

She was supposed to be resting!

"Something like that," Breq replied, making the effort to smile again. Especially with a Radchaai she preferred to be careful not to come across as an ancillary.

She turned her gaze towards the fish, a possible distraction. "You mus care a lot about it."

To drag it along here.

The smiling, too, was definitely something different and, if Tisarwat was honest, disturbing. She didn't think she would need to use a second hand to count the times she'd seen Fleet Captain smile, and, even on this strange, younger version of her face, it felt unnatural.

Then again, so was a lot of this. Maybe the drugs Medic had given her hadn't worn off quite as much as she thought, and she was still in some altered state. It would almost be a relief.

She tucked it all away to think about later, though, along with so many other things, and dully followed...Breq's gaze toward the fish, meeting the comment with a small gesture.

"It was a gift," she explained, "from my decade. They thought I might like the company."

Probably a ship without ancillaries then. Ships might care a lot about their officers, but they generally didn't give gifts.

"That's kind of them."

Perhaps an odd choice of a gift, but they probably did care about her.

"They must miss you."

She assumed, from what she had seen of human soldiers on other ships.

"Mercy of Kalr, you say?"

She didn't recognise the name, and even if she had, she wouldn't have let Tisarwat know how familiar she was with the Radchaai fleet.

Mercy of Kalr was hardly your average sort of ship, anyway, no matter which way you looked at it.

And Tisarwat didn't know about her decade missing her so much; she was definitely trying not to think about missing them, though.

She nodded, also trying not to think of how weird it was to have that face not even know Mercy of Kalr. "That's right," she said, and, in an effort to maybe get some other sort of reaction or idea of just who this was or where she was coming from, she added, "Currently stationed in the Athoek System. Before that, Omaugh Palace."

"I haven't been to either of those places," Breq said.

She was wondering how similar their universes were, and how similar whoever that doppelganger in Tisarwat's universe was to Breq herself. It was highly unlikely that Tisarwat would know that she was an ancillary, should they be similar enough for that, she decided.

"Who thought it would be restful here? Your Fleet Captain?"

Had Breq been prone to laughing she would have.

"Apparently so," Tisarwat said, a little wryly, although the whole thing left her feeling confused. This didn't seem at all the place anyone should send anyone ever, especially not to....'rest.' Not to mention that dropping something with a mind disproportionally invaded by the Lord of the Radch herself into unknown space just seemed...ill-advised.

Tisarwat wouldn't be at all surprised if she discovered that something had gone horribly wrong.

In fact, she was desperately hoping that it had.

"I'm not sure if this is going to disappoint you, but this island isn't restful at all," Breq said. "You'll notice. Perhaps you should let your Fleet Captain know in case there's been a mistake. If it's possible to contact her."

She had no idea why, but she felt a little protective of this poor confused child.

Even if this wound up being the most relaxing planet to ever exist, 'rest' hadn't been on Tisarwat's to-do list from the moment she met Kuybey, anyway.

"I hadn't really thought of that," she admitted. "It's been a busy day."

But now that she did think of it, she hardly wanted to make it seem like she couldn't handle it. It could still be some sort of test.

She was still leaning heavily toward 'mistake,' but it was a risk she'd rather not take.

"I imagine it has," Breq said, smiling again.

She hesitated for a moment. A long moment.

"If you can't reach your Fleet Captain, there is another Radchaai on the island. She won't be of any help, but if you miss civilized company."

A pause.

"Perhaps not the best civilized company, but still."

Any civilized company would be welcome, really, though Breq's hesitation made Tisarwat feel cautiously wary. Especially since, if anyone so far could begin to truly understand how uncomfortable Tisarwat really was underneath her smooth, polished faced, it would be her.

"Another Radchaai? What's her name? Where can I find her?"

And it would be true sign of Tisarwat's strength if she was able to not go rushing out to find her immediately.

She could really use some good fucking tea right now.

"She works in the flower shop on Saturday," Breq said. "And goes to the bar sometimes. I haven't talked to her, but she's mentioned on radio regularly. Seivarden Vendaai. I'm sure you can ask for her in town."

And, just to make sure Tisarwat was aware, she added: "Most things that happen here gets broadcasted on radio. Squirrels instead of an AI though, and you can bribe them."

"Bribe them?" Tisarwat asked, because dealing with that was, for the moment, much easier than dealing with the fact that she was pretty sure this Breq has said Seivarden Vendaai.

There was no such thing as coincidence.

But Tisarwat was starting to believe pretty firmly in eternal bad luck.

"With rum. It's a kind of local arrak."

Breq felt sorry for her, knowing this was a lot to take in.

Forget the tea; maybe what Tisarwat really needed was some of this rum.

The whole fact that Seivarden was apparently here on this island (a different one? An alternate version, just like this Breq? Was she going to be younger, too? She could hardly be any older...) had her a little lost on the rest of what had been said, and she took a moment to try to go over it.

"So there are squirrels...that can be bribed with rum....for their broadcasts? Why would they need to be bribed?"

"Do you really want every detail of your life broadcast on radio?" Breq asked. "Well, maybe not every detail, but everything they find interesting."

"They really do that?" Tisarwat was trying to imagine it, but it seemed so contrary to her experiences so far, and she looked around a little, trying to spot these squirrels. "How do you even hear the broadcast? I couldn't even communicate with the Station before I took the...shuttle," it still felt wrong to call it that, "and I haven't seen much technology since then besides maybe what looks like personal communication devices..."

Speaking of which...

"...where can I get one of those?"

"There's a store," Breq said. "I can show you, or maybe your big sibling wants to help. You have to have some kind of device, including this one, to listen to the broadcast. And the squirrels recruit people to report, so make it understandable."

At least Tisarwat seemed smart and willing to get an idea how things worked here.

"There's no point in trying to find an AI here," she said. "You'll have to do a lot of work yourself."

A lot more than a young Radchaai lieutenant was used to anyway.

"Do you know which classes you're taking yet?"

Tisarwat's first instinct was to fight off the feeling of helplessness just then, to push it aside, ignore it, fight past it, to prove herself capable, but at the same time, what would be the point? She was lost and adrift, she was overwhelmed, and even though this was not her Fleet Captain, she still looked like her and sounded like her and acted like her, too, except for those odd smiles. She understood in a way that no one else here would, except maybe Seivarden. And there was comfort in that.

So her shoulders slumped as she let out the tension of trying to be so poised and unflappable and polite.

"I don't know much of anything at all!" she admitted, somewhat miserably. "I was told everything would just be taken care of."

"That's not entirely wrong though, in a way. Getting used to things is the hardest part."

And quite hard.

"If you feel like you need something practical to do once a week I am looking for employees. It's not the kind of work that you're used to, but sometimes keeping busy helps."

Tisarwat didn't look like she would take an offer of a job in a shop as an insult just now, which Breq would expect from a Radchaai Lieutenant.

Before any of this, Tisarwat hadn't even really wanted to be assigned to a ship, anyway. Too bad someone else had different plans for her.

And it didn't seem quite so bad, framed the way Breq had put it.

"In your music shop?" she asked, with a tone of amusement in her faint grin, after a long moment to consider it, looking at her.

"In my music shop. It's an unpredictable place, but usually pleasant, and I'm looking for employees. The former owner just recently left it to me, and I've been working on turning the basement into a living space."

Best not mention the Silence just yet.

"You can think about it if you like, and let me know if there's a day that suits you if you decide you want to."

Breq knew how to deal with young lieutenants, and she was sure she could teach Tisarwat how to deal with both the shop and the customers.

Fandom High Welcome Picnic, Front Lawn of the School, All Day: Part II

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