Truce by Rosemary Le Beau, Callum Adair, Nan Ecitsuj, Nathaniel Graison, Ek Balam, and Aaron Zeeman “When envoys are sent with compliments in their mouths, it is a sign that the enemy wishes for a truce.”--Sun Tzu Rosie shook her head in amazement as she picked up the several PADDs she wanted to take with her to the Georgetown. Her staff on Tempest was sharp and vital and she liked to think that they were sharp enough to function without her. She was just another engineer like them, she often told them. simply the one in charge. And then, she thought with utter amazement yet again, there was the staff on their sister ship. Their chief gets hauled off to Earth for God knows what and the rest of them fall to pieces? What the hell was wrong with those people? She was still grumbling about it when she got to the transporter room. "Adair," she stated as she plunked her PADDs down on the console, "the only one of 'em over there with any sense is your fellow transporter chief. Nice fella but he talks too damned much." "Aye but he's good banter when there's nothing t'do but chatter," Adair grinned. "Back over there for more purgatory, ma'am?" "Unfortunately," Rosie grumbled as she stepped onto the transporter stage. "I cannot believe they got through the Academy without somebody holding their hands. I can't for them to get a new chief. Those people are frighteningly zombie like." "Ah wheel, at least they've got you for the time being," Adair chuckled as he typed in the signal for the Georgetown. "Ready when you are, ma'am." "Send me to bogey land, Adair, and pray I don't throw things at people. I am so tempted," she said with a sigh. "Engage." He grinned as the Chief Engineer fizzled away to the Georgetown then folded his arms across his wide chest. That was one seriously unhappy bunny. Nan grinned as soon as the Tempest's chief reappeared on the stage. "Welcome back, ma'am," he said brightly. "For once I actually have a message for you that doesn't include something broken, lost, or just plain unexplained. Suffice to say I don't think Mr. Garrity will be back and the message simply requests you get to Engineering as soon as possible." "Right," Rosie said carefully, wondering how he managed to say that all in one breath. "But all is still fine here I'm sure." "Absolutely," Nan hmmphed. "Hey Nathaniel!" The slight young man grinned as he sauntered over to where the big boss man was buried under a console, only his legs showing. He took just a minute to admire the view then said, "Yes, oh capitan?" "Not a captain," Aaron laughed from beneath. "Pass me the isolinear spanner?" The boy hummed as he ducked down to scan the set of tools all laid out on the floor by the Lieutenant Commander's feet. He tapped each one, grinning at how clean they were. "Ooo gee um, which one's that, sir?" "Nathaniel," Aaron said, his voice low and rumbling. He clicked his fingers of his only free hand, the other holding two pieces of tubing together. "Now please." Rosie's nose twitched as soon as she entered the main bay. Something was different already. That much she could tell. What that something was was another story entirely. People were, as usual, scurrying to and fro as they ought when a ship was in dock but her trained eye noticed something. They actually looked like they were scurrying with a purpose. Tucking a lock of the white that framed her face behind her ear, she strode forward, spying a cadet sh e hadn't seen before. "Excuse me, Cadet, I'm Lieutenant Commander Le Beau," she said simply, hoping to hell that the kid would know why she had to report so urgently. After handing Aaron the tool, Nathaniel turned and blinked over at the new Lieutenant Commander, his violet eyes fluttering. "Two for the price of one," he grinned. "How can I help you, ma'am?" Buried under the console, Aaron didn't pay any mind to what Nathaniel was doing or who he was talking to. Someone had hardwired part of this console to act as a relay to a shuttle and he damn well wanted to know who. So he was installing a little gift for whoever it was, not only stopping them getting any information about the ship, but also tagging them so Aaron could follow them. The whole of Engineering had been adapted and warped, its specs so skewed it was driving him crazy and whoever had done all that had also done this little bit of rerouting so he was now doing his own little reroute. "I wish I knew," Rosie said with a soft hmmph. "I'm Tempest's chief engineer and I've been coming here helping your crew get Georgetown back in shape while yours is off God knows where. Today I got a message to come straight here. I'm kinda curious who sent the message." On the upper deck, Ek froze. Despite what Aaron had requested, there were some things he could just not control, his senses being one of them. He'd smelt the coffee when he and Nathaniel first arrived and now he heard a voice that grated him right down to his bones. "Tz'it hell," he muttered as he slid out from a console top. "Why me?" "I did," Aaron said from under the console. He slid himself out and grinned up at her then jumped to his feet, his energy rolling around him. "I'm Georgetown's new Chief Engineer and I wanted to thank you for helping my people take care of her." "Oh my lord..." Rosie grinned outright. "Aaron Zeeman, nobody told me you'd been reassigned. Captain Craig'll be tickled!" On the upper level, Ek felt his muscles tighten and his hair stand up as his eyes followed the woman. He abruptly stood up straight and stomped away from his spot. Letting out a bright laugh, Aaron grinned and nodded to Main Engineering. "My own little slice of heaven. I really do have to thank you for keeping her from blowing up. Did you see some of the enhancements? Scary stuff." Leaning forward so she could speak softly, Rosie said, "Why do you think I didn't allow these guys on my ship? They're frighteningly robotic and my two assistants might have killed them. Well, one of them would have but, yes, the mods...I think they were stonewalling me about removing things, hoping Garrity'd be back." Ek thought about leaping down and pouncing but that would have been wrong on several levels. He wanted that creature away from Nathaniel and he didn't think Aaron had any idea what she was. By the time he'd reached the main floor, his hackles were lowered but his eyes still flashed dangerously. "That guy was freaking dangerous. I'm slowly putting the place back on track, but it's like wading through water upstream," Aaron snorted. He turned when he saw Ek approach and almost smiled until he felt the prickling irritation coming off him in waves. "Lieutenant Commander Le Beau, meet my deputy, Ek Balam." "We've met," they both said, both in ice cold tones. Ek's smile was blatantly insincere as he added, "The lieutenant commander and I were in the same class at the Academy." Nathaniel raised his eyebrows at the same moment Aaron narrowed his eyes. The older man folded his arms across his broad chest and stared at them both. "And the reason the whole of Main Engineering just dropped ten degrees? I'm guessing you weren't bosom buddies." "Tz'it got that right," Ek grumbled, not even trying to hide his hostility. "I'd rather see a blind Pakled veterinarian than--" "Shut your mouth, Balam, or I can shut it for you," Rosie said, her hazel eyes steely. "Rosie?" Aaron said, now thoroughly confused but swiftly approaching pissed. "Mind telling me what the hell's going on?" "Your deputy there is an arrogant, nasty man, Aaron, and I'd've had his butt in the commandant's office even back then if I thought it'd've done any good," Rosie said plainly. Nathaniel had moved up behind Ek now, watching Rosie from behind his friend. "Why so mad, Ek? She's just an engineer." "One of them, Nathaniel," he said in a jaguar soft growl. "Not the normals: one of those tz'it super hero sorts." "A mutant?" Nathaniel asked softly, his oddly coloured eyes now very wary and fixed on Rosie. Ek nodded sharply. "One of them." Aaron frowned first at Ek then at Rosie, his grip across his chest tightening. "I didn't know," he said with a hard stare. "You never struck me as the goody-goody sort." "What?" Rosie snapped. "You, too? Boy, doesn't that take the cake? I never hid the fact that I was, Aaron." "I just didn't know," Aaron said carefully. He moved so he was standing in front of Ek, blocking him from Rosie, thus blocking Nathaniel as well. "I'm not prejudiced, if that's what you think. It's just... You're a Xavier's kid, aren't you?" "Yes, I am and so was my mother. Both my parents still live there. What's wrong with Xavier's?" she demanded. "You want a list?" Ek asked. "Ek, shut up," Aaron snarled over his shoulder. He kept his eyes on Rosie and something slid behind them, something dangerous and primeval. They glimmered golden for just an instant as his energy flared. "They're arrogant and they give mutants a bad name. They think their way is the only way, even your Brotherhood of Mutants are arrogant. They look down on people who don't want to play their silly games. They have no respect." Rosie gaped for a moment, unable to control the shock. "First of all, the Brotherhood isn't 'mine'," she began carefully, her hand curling at her side, wanting desperately to either hit somebody or throw something. "Second, not every mutant is like you're saying. We're Human just like you and we have the right to be as we were born." Ek said nothing, deferring to Aaron's request, but, still, he snorted in disgust. "So do we," Aaron growled. "So go tell it to your school. Everyone has a right to be who and what they are." His body was actually shaking slightly with contained rage. It was an age old argument. The mutants thought that all mutants were the same, so they should all adhere to their happy clappy pointless mindset, they refused to see the Lupus as different, as unique and thus separate. "We do not bow to the X-men nor Magneto." Nathaniel blinked between Aaron and Rosie. Aaron was getting really mad but so was she, but Aaron was blowing their cover too, right out in Main Engineering. "Sir," he whispered soothingly, "maybe we should go somewhere else." "Ah, yeah," Ek said carefully, edging up to Aaron's other side though keeping his back turned on Rosie in contempt. "We normal people, who don't get to go to super hero schools, have a lot of work to do. There are still coffee choices listed on the replicator in my quarters for one thing." "Ek, seriously, shut up," Aaron said flatly. But he turned to look into Nathaniel's worried eyes and nodded. The kid had never experienced the snobbery of the Xavier kids, his background just hadn't allowed for anything quite so normal as envy or prejudice. For a moment Aaron had forgotten and thought of Nathaniel as the same as he was, as Ek was, just prejudiced, but the only reason Nathaniel would hate or distrust was if his Alpha hated or mistrusted something. And since Aaron was the Alpha right now, he had to work on not letting his prejudices influence the younger man. He reached out, caressed Nathaniel's cheek and smiled. "Let's go into my office. I think we need to explain to Rosie why we think like we do." Those deep, dark eyes turned back onto Rosie. "We're not prejudiced for the sake of it, we're not like other baselines. Let me explain, but not out here." "Come into my parlor said the spider to the fly," Rosie said with a very unladylike snort but then she shrugged. "It isn't like I can just go back to the captain and tell her why I left without finishing what I was supposed to do." Ek she expected nothing better from, not since he made his disdain for her obvious years ago. She was disappointed in Aaron, though, having served with the man on Fenchurch and having seemed to be as congenial as he'd been until Ek showed up. Nathaniel stayed close to Aaron but not touching again until they were in the Chief's office. Aaron leaned against the desk and stared at the three of them in there with him, watching them carefully. When the door was closed he nodded again. "Rosie, our prejudice isn't a baseline look at a mutant in envy or fear. We don't fear what you are because we'd be fearing ourselves. If I'd known you were one of the normals, the Xavier kids, you'd never have seen me as who I am, I'd have avoided you. Painful, but true. But there's a reason." The young shapeshifter hovered close to Aaron and Ek, his purple eyes staring at them as if he wanted to memorise their faces. "Aaron?" he whispered. "I don't understand." "I'll explain," the older man said as he pulled Nathaniel close, holding him and letting him curl against him. "We're Lupus. Disdain has been shown to us and we reflect it back, that's why we're at the best cautious around normal mutants, and at the worst..." His eyes glowed amber, filling with his wolf, strange in his handsome, tanned face. Those eyes settled on Ek and he let out a soft growl, "At worst, we're prejudiced. Even me." Ek settled a reassuring hand on Nathaniel's shoulder. His own self confidence was never in doubt, Ixchel often telling him it was entirely too large for one man, but Nathaniel was younger and definitely had not been what Ek had been. "And I am not the worst. I would rather avoid you people, walk away, yet there are those who would..." Ek shrugged. "There are worse tempers than mine." "You're mutants." Rosie said it flatly, her eyes taking in all three. She wished she could smell like Logan did but she couldn't. She had to trust her own eyes and she did at that moment but it didn't make sense. "I've never heard of whatever it is you said." "Not mutants, Lupus," Aaron said with deep insistance. "We're not the same as you. We are genetically unique." "Same difference," Rosie replied. "Your code says Human under a scanner doesn't it?" "It doesn't say homo-sapiens superioris, if that's what you mean," Aaron snorted. A look almost like disdain filled his face and he fought hard not to growl with irritation. It was only Nathaniel pressed close to his side that stopped the beast from surfacing more than just the yellow eyes. "It says Human but not baseline. My code would say I'm homo-sapiens superioris lupus. It may seem a small difference to you but it makes a world of difference to us. If you really think all Humans are the same then you're deluding yourself. Baselines don't see you as just another Human. Some of them may not be prejudiced and they may not treat you differently but you're just as alien to them as a Vulcan or Klingon. You fit in because the aliens do, you're accepted because they are, not because you're Human." "Then why the hell are you--him--" she began, pointing an accusing finger at Ek, who promptly narrowed his eyes at her, "so dead against me and my kind? Because the professor wants all Humans to get along? Because Magneto wants to squish all non-mutants like bugs? I don't even know of either of 'em knows your kind exists but now I do and I still don't get why you paint us all with one brush. That'd be as pointless as me thinking your cadet is an idiot just because Balam here is." Nathaniel lifted his eyebrows at Rosie and smirked, chuckling softly under his breath. "See, Ek?" he whispered, "she does know you!" Under his breath, Ek spit a rude mutter at Rosie in Mayan but then he gave Nathaniel a friendly smack in the shoulder. "Hush, cub," he snorted. "We object because you refuse to see us as different but in the same breath don't offer us the same liberties as you take for granted," Aaron continued, biting back the snarl he had for Nathaniel. "Mutants want all mutants to be alike but not a single Lupus has ever been to your precious school. We're not welcome there. And don't even try to say your Professor doesn't know about us, he does, so does Magneto. My brother has spoken to them personally, so has Luca. They're both members of our ruling council and after the last time, we've been forbidden from going near the school. I've never seen Richard so angry." Rosie opened her mouth to say something then shut it, knowing it would be heated and probably inappropriate. As it was, she wanted to punch the smug smirk right off of Balam's face. She took a deep breath and tried again. "That I know of, the Professor's never forbidden anyone at the school without good reason," she said in defense of the man. "I can't say a thing 'bout Magneto because he's a bit nuts to put it mildly." "The official stance was that we are too dangerous," Aaron said sourly. "Some of the weaker ones can't always control themselves around the full moon without an alpha. Your school wasn't willing to employ a Lupus teacher, can't have the kiddies taught by a monster, after all." "And we are much too rare to be cut down by ignorant people: mutant or baseline," Ek added darkly. "Ixchel told it happened once and that was enough for her." "That's...something must have happened," Rosie protested. "Yeah, your resident geniuses have poor knowledge of animal behavior, that stinking creature that lives there aside," Ek snorted. "I don't know what," Aaron nodded slowly, "but I do know Richard was furious about it. We'd never put someone with poor control in that position but prejudice isn't just a baseline quality. We're treated like animals, Rosie, so you can see why some of us act like it." Ek's face was flushed and he had to force down a snarl of warning at Rosie. People who make Ixchel cry were not people he wanted near him. Ixchel had cried that day when she told him. It was only out of respect for Aaron's position as their odd pack's alpha that he didn't lash out even now. Instead, he moved closer to Nathaniel, drawing calm from the cadet even if the boy had teased him. "You are as bad as the baselines who treat us differently then," Rosie pointed out, her eyes sparing Ek a flash of lightning. "I didn't do anything to you yet I get the same treatment. Fine, you're entitled but I damned well better get the respect that's due my rank and position in the Fleet." "And I'd damn well better get mine," Aaron replied calmly. "I missed you, y'know. You were a friend and someone who helped me when Leotie died. I'm sorry we have to part this way, I regret my feelings but I'd find them very hard to change. Thank you for taking care of my department for me." Rosie regarded her fellow chief with a mixture of sadness and regret in her eyes. "I don't regret it any of that at all. You were a good man, and maybe you still are, but you're also not the man I thought you were and that disappoints me. As for what respect you deserve, I don't ask for something without expecting to return it." Nathaniel stared up into Aaron's strong features and saw the hurt and grief there, it was so raw it made the young man both flinch and wish he could do something about it. "Would Leotie have felt this way?" he asked softly. Aaron's gaze shifted to him and pinned him to the spot but he didn't flinch in the face of it. "Would she have turned her back on a friendship just because of species? Was she really that prejudiced?" His anger washed through him and Aaron lashed out, lifting Nathaniel by his shirt front, holding him at arm's length as easily as a normal person would lift a feather. "Never assume you knew anything about my wife," he growled, his whole body vibrating with contained rage. "She was good and pure and sweet. Do not ever EVER imply she was less than that." Ek had been standing rather close to Nathaniel and jumped back when Aaron grabbed him, unable to move for a moment afterward, stunned as he was by their alpha's action. After that moment, though, he approached slowly, gently bumping Aaron's shoulder with his own. He stood a good chance of getting swiped at himself but he could take that easier than the kid could. "Calm down, Aaron," he said in a soft purr that came from deep within. "It was a rhetorical question. He meant no harm." "He meant harm," Aaron snarled, shaking Nathaniel sharply but the boy put his warm hands over where he was held and stared into Aaron's swirling golden eyes, his calmness filling his own. "She would never..." Aaron whispered as his grip lessened. Nathaniel spread his hands up over his Alpha's wrists, up his arms until Aaron let him go and he landed comfortably on his feet. He slid his hands up until Aaron held him tightly, his purple eyes on Rosie steady and sure. "We are pack," Nathaniel said softly, "we are so different to you, we're alien. We are instinct. We are blood. We are the hunt. We are what we are and if you can accept our differences, we can accept yours." Aaron gripped the younger man so tightly he trembled. How had Nathaniel grown so wise? He knew so little about the young man's past but in that moment there was an age to his gaze that was almost ancient in its understanding. For the first time, Aaron realised Nathaniel would one day be Alpha, that that had been what Luca was grooming him for. But not today, not now and maybe not for years to come. Rosie was even more stunned than Ek had been but she offered the cadet a smile, her hazel eyes bright. "I never had issue with you being different and I didn't know y'all even existed til a few minutes ago. I honestly thought Balam was just a jerk but even that's understandable in light of what you're saying. He's protecting his family. That I can understand." "We keep ourselves separate because we don't want to hurt people," Nathaniel explained. "And people are afraid of us. We're were-animals, that's never going to have great connotations." Aaron slowly eased back but he kept his death grip on the boy, as if scared to let him go. "We're animals but we're people too. Some never quite come to terms with the beast inside. After all, for baselines to produce a lupus is a one in a billion chance. It's a one in a half billion chance for normal mutants to produce one. It's better odds for lupus to produce lupus but it's not a certainty." "Better odds if we choose someone from our own type," Nathaniel added softly. Rosie hmmphed softly at that. "That's a better worldview of it than my grandmother, that's for sure," she said with a smirk. "She hates my fiance because he's a baseline." She shook her head then. "I always thought y'all were just legends and stories but even those have basis in fact. I'm willing to try if you are." "Ek?" Aaron asked softly. If the younger man wasn't interested, none of them would try, but if he was willing to, they all would. Purple eyes flicked to his friend and Nathaniel reached out fingers to brush across Ek's shoulder. "Please?" It was a struggle for Ek. He stared at them, arms crossed over his chest in an effort now to keep his temper under control. Aaron was asking for a lot. He well and truly loved Ixchel, the jaguar on their council, seeing her as a substitute mother, and Rosie's kind had caused her pain. He knew the Lupus were better than the damned super hero sorts. He knew it as surely as he knew he was Ek Balam, the Black Jaguar. He was about to tell Rosie to get out of his sight when Nathaniel touched him. He was very fond of the younger man and Aaron, too. He didn't want them to resent him if he said 'no'. He didn't want to be cut off from the pack, even emotionally, if they accepted his stance. He was lonely enough as it was. "Fine," he said grudgingly. "I won't spit at her." "It's a good place to start from," Aaron nodded. "We can both of us work on it. Nathaniel?" "Yes?" the young man asked, still staring at Rosie but his lips turned up in a smile. "I want you to be this pack's liaison to the mutants. I think we need one if we're going to function as a group. The Georgetown doesn't have any that I know of but I don't want what happened here to happen again," Aaron told him firmly. Then he looked at Rosie and smiled. "No more prejudice if we can help it. Okay?" "Fair enough but fair warning. There is another mutant aboard Tempest: my cousin Lexie. She's one of our fighter navigators. I won't tell her about you all if that's what you want but I don't want y'all thinking I was hiding anything," Rosie replied, smiling still at Nathaniel. "Please don't," Nathaniel asked sweetly. "If you really need to talk to someone about it, call me? Now I'm pack liaison, I can answer questions." "No problem, cadet, but i your name really Nathaniel?" Rosie asked, charmed by the cadet's nature. "Because if it is, I knew there was a reason I liked you." "Nathaniel Graison, ma'am," he nodded. "It's a good name, same as my fiance's," Rosie said brightly. "Aaron, chances are, if any of y'all contact Tempest, you'll be talking to him sooner or later. Chief Lynley's the captain's aide." "You chose a baseline," Nathaniel asked carefully, though it was more statement than question. "I thought most mutants chose other mutants," Aaron added. "I chose Nathaniel who happens to be a baseline," Rosie countered. "He's a good man on so many levels. I don't differentiate people by their genes. I really didn't mean to offend you all before." "We did," Aaron said with a shrug. "I'm sorry for it but it's true. Most of the time, we're so introverted we don't even see there's an outside world. It's good you found someone though. It's good to be in love." "And I'm still so very sorry about your wife, Aaron," Rosie said softly, stepping forward despite the glare she was still getting from Ek, truce or not. Ek bit back a sigh. How the hell was it that even a mutant could find a match and he couldn't? He didn't think Ixchel had it right: there was no lycanthrope out there for him. He certainly wasn't going to look elsewhere. Just thinking about it made Rosie annoy him all the more and he wished she would just leave. "It's fine," Aaron said stiffly. His grief had shown for just a moment but he had to bite down on it or he'd go mad with it like he had before. "I miss her but I'm strong for my children. I have to be." "And there's the pack," Ek finally said, his hand reaching to squeeze his alpha's shoulder. "We can be strong for you, too, Aaron." So said Surak: Kaiidth. What is, is. **************Create a Home Theater Like the Pros. Watch the video on AOL Home. (http://home.aol.com/diy/home-improvement-eric-stromer?video=15?ncid=aolhom00030000000001)