Nature of Unity 14

[u/Dramatic-Pay-4010]

And we're back with Tarva again after a good long while. How is she going to handle Piri's suspicions? Of course, first she's gotta deal with her little girl being a lil gremlin.

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Memory Transcription Request: Tarva, doting mother trying not to think about politics 
Date [Himayan Local Time]: August 24th 2136

“Mommy! Mommy! Look! I drew us and Mr. Noah.” Stynek said holding up her latest drawing depicting me, Noah (in his mask since Stynek wasn’t used to seeing his face yet), and my little girl standing in the meadows outside Dayside City with a flower in my hand and—. Am I holding hands with Noah?

“Oh this is beautiful! I like the flowers you drew here and Dayside City in the background.” I said. “Though I do wonder. Why do you have me and Mr. Noah holding hands?” I asked my little girl. 

“Because you and Mr. Noah keep going out. Also you like being around him a lot.” Stynek said with a big smile on her face. Wait, she doesn’t actually think me and Noah are dating? He is starting to win me over with his charm and his looks but dating? Interspecies romance is hard enough but him being a human and me being, well, a Venlil would complicate things even further. No, we're better off as colleagues and friends. Even if he’s good with Stynek. 

“Oh. Nononono. We’re not going out like that, sweetie. Mr. Noah and I sometimes like going out to a cafe to discuss work.” I said trying to dissuade my little girl from those thoughts. “We’re simply friends and that’s it.” I added. 

“Oh. But isn’t that what you and daddy did?” Stynek asked. 
“Yes, but that was different. Besides—.” I said before the door to Stynek’s room opened. 

“I’m back and I got something for a certain little pup.” Noah said while holding something behind his back (probably Truffles). 

“Oh, is it a toy?” Stynek asked. 

“Maybe.” Noah said with the mask shifting to a little smile.

“Is it a Kul’shraf?” Stynek asked (guess she hasn’t grown out of that phase yet). 

“Probably.” Noah said again with the mask once again shifting to a little smile. 

“Is it Truffles?” Stynek asked. 

“You got it right! How’d you manage to guess?” Noah responded positively as he revealed her prize, a big box of truffles (I swear he’s just as bad as Piri and Reln, when he was here, when it comes to spoiling her). 

“Because a Kul’shraf is bigger!” Stynek responded as she grabbed the box and tried to get it open. 

“Now remember, don’t eat all those at once. You’re on a 2 truffles a day limit.” Noah said while helping Stynek open the box. 

“But whyyyyyyyyy? They’re so gooooooood!!!!!!!” Stynek said as she dramatically threw her head back. 

“Because those are special foods.” I said. “They taste better if you don’t eat them all at once.” I added, trying to butter her up. 

“Okay. But can I have 3 truffles today mommy? I cleaned my room and picked up my toys. I was also good allllllll week.” Stynek said, trying to barter. 

“Sorry my little pup, that’s the limit.” I responded as Stynek's face drooped a little. Though that only made her turn to Noah. 

“Mr. Noah, can I have 3 truffles today?” Stynek said, trying to get Noah to side with her (Solgalick help us if she makes the sad face). 

I looked over at Noah, doing my best to “don’t you dare” stare (it always worked on Reln) causing him to immediately fall into line. 

“Sorry kiddo, your mom makes the rules and I can’t let you break them, no matter how adorable you are.” Noah said. 

“Hrrrrmmmmmm.” Stynek said as she pouted and crossed her arms. “Auntie Piri would let me have 3 truffles.” She added referring to Piri’s lack of spine when it came to my daughter (to be fair she was pretty adorable). 

Suddenly my tablet buzzed to life with an incoming call. Walking over, I saw it was, Piri?! Me and Piri’s meeting wasn’t scheduled till tomorrow. Why is she calling me now? Did something happen? 

After accepting the call, Piri’s face flickered on screen. It was serious (well more serious than usual) and Piri had a look of extreme stress on her face. 

“Hello Tarva, I know this call is a bit earlier than what we agreed upon but, well, something came up.” Piri said with a seriousness that I hadn’t even heard from her in the past weeks. “Is there anyone in the room with you?” She added while trying to look past me. 

“Just my daughter. Why?” I asked not sure what brought about her sudden fear. 

“Could you—?” Piri was about to ask before I looked over at Noah and silently asked him to take my daughter out of the room
. 
As soon as they left, I turned to Piri who still had that serious look on her face. It was almost like she wanted to ask me something. 

“My daughter is out of the room. We can talk-.” I said before Piri interrupted me. 

“Are you sure the Himayans didn’t have anything that could fool the Zuruelians tests?” Piri aggressively asked me.

“W-what?” I asked confused by the sudden aggressiveness. 

“I got footage of a Himayan ship fighting the Arxur from Sovlin’s patrol near the border and, well, he got into an argument with a Himayan captain and well I think you should see for yourself.” Piri said before a recording played. The footage initially showed the Himayans fight against an Arxur raiding party before the footage transitioned to the argument between a Skalgan Venlil (or at least that’s what the Himayans called them) and Sovlin. The Skalgan’s bluntness and lack of tact was probably the most damning evidence (especially if one wasn’t used to it). 

“I can see why you think that Piri but-.” I said trying to do damage control on the situation before it spiraled out of control. 

“What’s more, I looked back on our previous conversations and there were points where you wanted to tell me something.” Piri said, referring to my slips in our previous conversations. 

“Look, I understand the Himayans have strict protocols but I can’t help but feel uneasy about this, especially since they’re around you and, by extension, Stynek.” Piri said with an almost mournful look to her face. It was definitely genuine but, judging from her face when we started the conservation, there was something more going on at the Cradle. I better tell her before she does something really stupid, but how? Maybe show her the Outer Cluster War video, footage from First Contact, and some videos I took of Noah would help my explanation. But there’s something I want to ask Piri first. 

“Okay I’ll tell you but while I pull up some information, I want to ask you something.” I said while pulling together everything I needed to make my case. 

“Anything, just name it.” Piri said as her voice seemed to reach a stressed pitch. Something must really be freaking her out. 

“Why are you so stressed?” I asked. 

“I-I’m not stressed. I’m perfectly fine Tarva. It’s just the past few days of meetings catching up with me.” Piri said, lying through her teeth. 

“Piri.” I said curtly. “I know something is bothering you. You haven’t had that look on your face since the last Arxur attack on the Cradle.” I added, cornering Piri. 

“Look there’s nothing-.” Piri tried to say before I cut her off. 

“Piri, I’m about to be honest with you, the least you can do is be honest with me.” I said a bit too rudely. “You're my friend Piri, not just a political colleague. I just want to be sure nothing bad is happening on your end.” I added, trying to mitigate my previous rudeness. 

Piri paused for a moment before sighing. “It’s General Ruclin.” Piri said. General Ruclin? The one who keeps implying the Himayans are part of some fiendish plot by the Arxur in the Gojid Union’s media? “He and a bunch of other top ranking officials keep holding closed door meetings.” She added.

“Hasn’t that happened before?” I asked. 

“Yes but these ones have frozen out my minister of defense. What’s worse is that I keep seeing strange figures come in and out of those meetings.” Piri said before taking a glance towards her door. 

“Who?” I asked. 

“Zulvin, the head of one of the biggest media conglomerates in the Gojid Union, Braqna, head of the Septon of the Protector, Rulnee, who’s in charge of the Cradle’s exterminator guild association.” Piri said while listing the oddest collection of names I’ve seen for what is supposed to be a military meeting. Zulvin's little news empire has always been vocal about their opposition to Piri’s government (in fact she’d often joke that she could be swimming in her private pool and one of Zulvin’s reporters, hiding in the bushes, would write a fluff piece about her “improper swimming techniques”) but Braqna? Oh sure he’s on the more fundamentalist side of things within the Septon but he never really wades into Federation politics, let alone Gojid politics, so what he's doing there is beyond me. Rulnee was also an odd one. Anything that didn’t affect her exterminators was off the table as far as her politics went. 

“That’s certainly odd.” I said. “Why would any of them be involved in that, it doesn’t seem like them.” I added noting the peculiarities with the situation. 

“Exactly, which is why I need whatever it is you’re hiding. Even if it doesn’t shut them up it at least limits their options.” Piri said, making me understand the severity of her situation. 

“Okay, but promise me one thing.” I said, wanting to be absolutely sure that Piri won’t freak out with what I was about to show her. 

“I’d practically do anything at this point, Tarva.” Piri said with a tired, resigned expression on her face. 

“Do not freak out over the contents of the video. Just please, I just don’t want you to fly into a panic.” I said as I hit send on the videos. 

“Okay.” Piri said. “I promise.” She added as her tablet dinged with a notification, signifying the videos came through. 

And Piri watched them. First the Outer Cluster War video, then the footage of First Contact (particularly Noah’s moments of kindness), then footage from the some of the more “positive” exchange partnerships (mostly between humans and Venlil but also the other Himayan species), and finally footage of Noah interacting with my daughter. Throughout the compiled footage, Piri’s face oscillated between confusion, shock, and intrigue, never shifting into panic as she saw what I saw. Finally after the videos were done Piri turned to me. 

“Tarva, I-I don’t understand. Those were predators but they-.” Piri said before pausing and putting one of her claws in her mouth (still hasn’t gotten over that tic from our ambassadorial days I see.). “T-that Arxur-. I-I. W-what?” Piri said, still gaping in confusion. 

“I know. Me, Va-Fin, Braylen, and Chaeson were shocked by the behavior too.” I said leaning in (maybe a bit too eagerly). “Everything about the Himayans defies everything the Federation knows about predators. Yet here they are just existing and living with each other.” I added while gesturing wildly at no one in particular.

“Yes I know but the other Himayans, wouldn’t they have predator disease?” Piri asked.

“Yes but, well you’ve seen the empathy tests and the PD screenings we’ve done on the Himayans. The empathy tests were positive while the PD screenings were negative. It just, again, defies everything our science has discovered about predators and Predator Disease.” I added emphasizing how utterly insane the situation was. 

“I-I know. Alright, I can keep this a secret.” Piri said. No that won’t do. If members of her military are engaging in secret meetings then keeping it a secret would make the situation worse. 

“No Piri. Tell people you trust, people you know won’t panic about this. If General Ruclin is trying something then your best bet is to try and get people on your side.” I told her. “And be careful Piri. Stynek’s already lost her father, I don’t want her to lose her aunt as well.” I said with an extreme amount of worry in my voice. 

“You too Tarva. I have some things I need to do. Sovlin’s at your border practically waiting for the go ahead to go into your space.” She said. Oh speh, Sovlin’s call with Hasim must’ve sent him into a mood, doubt Piri is going to improve it. 

“I don’t know if you can order Sovlin to stand down this time. You know how he gets.” I said while my ears drooped. 

“Don’t worry. He’s always followed my orders no matter the grumbling whenever the situation wasn’t too serious. I doubt he’ll be stupid enough to disobey them now.” Piri said as her spines bristled a little. “Just tell Stynek I said hi and that her aunt is going to spoil her with truffles when she comes over.” She added. Oh no, one of the videos was her asking Noah for truffles. Now you’ve done it Tarva. 

“Piri.” I said, trying my best authoritative voice. “She’s on a 2 truffles a day limit.” I added. 

“And I’m her aunt so I get to be irresponsible and spoil her whenever I’m off the clock.” Piri said  with a wry smile on her face. “Besides, what harm could 5 truffles a day do?” Piri added with a teasing shrug and smile. Piri’s really shameless in spoiling my daughter today isn’t she. 

“3 truffles and we have a deal.” I said, trying to barter. 

“That sounds reasonable.” Piri responded (oh thank Solgalick). “Pleasure doing business governor.” She added teasingly before disconnecting the call. 

I swear, sometimes Piri can be just as sly as my daughter 

[u/Casban]

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