Herald of the Stars: Chapter One Hundred and Four (Patreon)

I place my hands palms up in the middle of the table and Brigid reaches out and holds my hands.

“Brigid.”

“Yes, Aldrich.”

“Will you be my girlfriend?”

Brigid’s eyes widen slightly, then she pulls back slightly, still keeping a strong grip on my hands, and giggles.

“Oh, Aldrich. I was expecting you to ask me on a proper date. Not one of these pretend meetings we’ve been having for so long. Our first date. You didn’t plan this at all, did you?”

“I didn’t want to miss the moment.”

“A whim, then?” Brigid frowns, then shakes her head and smiles. “Really now, we have known each other long enough I should have more faith. Even so, I’ve been dropping hints for years, Aldrich, and while you would enjoy my touch, you always looked a little sad. Before I give you my answer, please tell me. Why did you ask me today?”

Brigid’s knuckles go slightly white as she squeezes my fingers. Her strength registers as a series of numbers in my head, rather than me feeling any stress on my own body.

I take a calming breath and wait a few seconds before I answer, even though I already used my fast thinking speed to arrive at one before Brigid finished her sentence. Keeping up the perception of humanity is a constant struggle and I have to run the equivalent of a teleprompter, written and annotated by my other minds to remind me how to speak in a relatable fashion.

“I have dozens of friends and a handful of close confidants, many of whom are female and whose company I enjoy. I could have called any of my friends, both male and female, for a chat and enjoyed my time with them. I didn’t.

“Brigid. You’re the only person I’m more intimate with and you’re the one who, after getting out of that tank, I didn’t want to take time for myself first before I met up with them. That’s when I realised I wanted to be more than just friends who flirt and cuddle a little bit, and that’s why I’m asking you today.

“Will you be my girlfriend? My partner? My first, last and every choice in between, of whom I spend my time with. I want to live a little. To be more than Magos Issengrund the armageddon prepper. I want to have more fun and I want to do all of that with you.”

Brigid gives me a blinding smile, “Then yes. My answer is yes. I’d love to be your girlfriend, Aldrich.” She giggles again, “Now that’s the sort of ‘feeling young again’ I was looking for. That was more a teenager’s confession than an adult’s. You’ve been out of the game a long while, haven’t you?”

I grimace, “I’m glad I could provide.”

“Oh, of that, I’ve no fear that you're not up to the task.” Brigid shakes her head, “Besides, it’s not like I’m any better. My children are well grown and my ex-husband is light years away. I’ve been married to this job for years. I think remembering how to accommodate another person in my life will take time and we both know this relationship is going to be a little unconventional given the amount of time we both need to ourselves with our great works. You remember my warning about obsessions, right?”

“I was hoping we could work on them together. I would love your help on these armour and weapon coordination systems I’m struggling with.”

“That sounds wonderful. Why don’t you tell me about all the things you’ve got lined up we could work on and I can see where we match. There’s no reason why we should just do one project together. It’s much better to have several on the go when something stalls, or one must wait for prototypes and testing to be completed.”

“Well alright. The most urgent is a refit of the gellar field for Distant Sun, now that I’ve experienced new design with Iron Crane, I know we will need it. There’s a lot of things I want to change about the vessel. It’s always being worked on to some degree, but never proper yard time as it’s our main war vessel. That’s more a project I give the orders for, rather than work on day to day.

“What is apparent though is that we need some sort of gellar booster for Iron Crane as well, probably a type of integrant component, like the ‘Mezoa Void Gellar Integrant’. Our last journey was closer to disaster than I’d like, but I don’t think this project will be easy as the Mezoa integrant dampens our warp signature, it doesn’t reinforce the gellar field itself and you have to disable it if the void shield components are damaged as otherwise the gellar field won’t function at all.”

Brigid nods along as I speak and I continue.

“The Mozoa integrant will definitely help and there is inspiration to be taken from the ‘Displacer Fencing’ that prevents teleportation. I know of no gellar bracing technology though as one usually just builds a stronger field. That would mean adjusting huge swathes of Iron Crane to fit more and bigger components in. I want to repurpose some storage, or rework some of the tertiary power generators so that they can be more than just back up when they aren’t needed. It will save a lot of power if we don’t have to run stronger gellar fields all the time as well, just when we need it.”

Brigid sighs, “I do love how brilliant you are, Aldrich and it sounds like you have a plan, but I can’t help you with that. Perhaps we could share a project that isn’t vessel based.”

“So no talking about the Icarus-Class synthesis vessel I am working on or the thruster improvements I was planning on delegating to Enginseer Róisín Paorach.”

“No, you can discuss those with her. I think she wants to talk to you about tanks anyway, and possibly the knights, or at least the vanguard armour. I’m not sure she will be too pleased if you take up too much of her time away from her big stompy battlesuits either. Unfortunately, she idolises you too much to say no. It would be better to ask someone else to help you with the thrusters. I think it would do some good to give some other tech-priests a chance to shine, rather than always turning to your best researcher.”

“I thought she would be a good fit, given Róisín is Enginseer Prime for Distant Sun. She has the experience working on those systems.”

“If that’s what you’re after, I suggest asking the yard overseer, Kai Ballantyne for aid. We aren’t building new vessels right now and while his teams are not idle, they aren’t doing anything vital either.”

“Yes, that would be a more efficient use of resources.”

“It’s what I do.”

I grin, “Then this one should be more to your liking. I want to extend the quantity of required implants for all crew. Many years ago, I conversed with Ambassador Lynu and flaunted my wealth as part of the negotiations to ensure she felt sufficiently cowled and worthless to agree to my demands.”

“Oh, do go on, Aldrich. This does sound like more fun.”

“Well, during the conversation I thought to myself that I would like to ensure that all crew were given everything the Tau are working so hard for, as part of their employment requirements and bonus, namely Voidskin and Electoo Wards.

“Since then, that has failed to materialise, though these upgrades have been given to all psykers since the invasion by the Great Enemy and the Orks. All those resources went into building servitors to crew all the new Adders and Iron Crane. While necessary, this has become a personal source of embarrassment, even if you’re the first person I’ve told about this.”

Brigid snickers and a pair of tears roll down her cheeks.

“Is it really that funny?” I say, feeling both exasperated and amused.

“Absolutely. Don’t stop now.”

“Fine. I was rather pleased with the suite of upgrades I gave to Marwolv’s small council, and while I consider them the minimum one needs to have even a chance at survival, it isn’t practical, or wise, to give that level of advancement away for free. If I had to choose one upgrade to give to everyone from the council’s selection, as well as the Voidskin and Warding Electoos, it would be the Black Skeleton.

“The reason I thought you’d like this program is that it would mean one for you too, and your height would be closer to mine. The remainder of our spare implant manufacturing capacity can go towards supplying those who actually pay for them, as well as some more invasive life support I wish to add to the void armour. At least until the fleet expands or takes casualties and we have to start building servitors again, that is.”

Brigid wipes her thumb across her cheeks. “I can follow your logic. I don’t think this counts as a ‘couple project’ though. We’d be going over this anyway as part of my normal work if you want to push this forward, though I suspect you would have kept the emotional commitment to these advancements to yourself in a work setting. I am happy you chose to share this with me.”

I slump in my seat, “Well, I don’t have anything else other than my weapon and armour coordination systems. How about you suggest a few things?”

“Ah, well, I don’t exactly have a project right now?” Brigid blushes.

“Really? What have you been doing in your free time then?”

“This is a little embarrassing.”

“Turnabout is fair play, you know.”

“Ergh, it is not.”

I raise an eyebrow.

“We will both regret this.”

“Try me.”

“There is a new holo-show I’ve been watching called ‘Deep Sea Chef’.”

“A documentary you downloaded before we left?”

“It does, indeed, document things.”

“That is wonderfully vague. What is it about?”

“Well, the star of the show, Tavin Woon, is a retired herald.”

“Oh, the guy who located the Eldar Webway Gate and received a hefty bounty.”

“That’s the one. He spent his money on getting aquatic implants so he can breathe underwater, withstand high pressures, and not worry about the bends as well as several other adaptations. See, before he joined up, his hobby was free diving. With the implants he can now dive almost seven hundred metres without a suit.”

“That’s impressive.”

“It gets better. He only takes a knife with him, not even a spear gun, and tries to catch and cook undersea creatures. Quite often he ends up wrestling with them. Despite the action, the camera work is...tasteful.”

“So let me get this straight. You’ve been watching a holo-show where a naked dude with a knife dives for food and cooks it afterwards, likely making moaning sounds about how good his dishes are?”

“He’s not naked!”

“So if he’s not wearing a suit, what does he wear?”

Brigid clears her throat, “Tighty whities that are somewhat translucent in the water.”

I burst into laughter.

“Hey!”

“I’m not making fun of how you pass your time, Brigid, nor do I disapprove. I am amused and horrified at the sheer audacity of this Tavin Woon fellow. To not only perform such challenges, but make a successful program out of it. He must have quite the imagination as well as a grounded understanding of the new world I brought him.”

Brigid folds her arms beneath her breasts and leans forward, resting her elbows on the table, “I’m glad you understand the brilliance of the show.”

“I don’t think you’ll catch me swimming in Iron Crane’s fish tanks though, no matter how pretty the anchovies are.”

“No, but you might sink in one.”

“Yes, probably. I am a bit heavy. It’s the iron in my blood.”

“Alright, I’ve already said yes,” Brigid sniggers. “You don’t need to keep trying to impress me with your manliness and dad jokes.”

“It’s an instinctive reaction.”

“Of course it is. Now you’ve made fun of my hobby, why don’t you share what you’ve been doing.”

I cast my thoughts back and frown, “I used to watch Old Earth media with Quaani and read the journals and messages of our ancestors. Since Quaani was placed in stasis, I spent much of my extra time working on how to get him safely out of it. I also started the personal outings with all my officers that led to you and I becoming acquainted outside of work. Hanging out with Thorfinn and Aileen, maybe once a month, is another activity. We usually compete over something pointless, drink a lot of alcohol, and wail endlessly about petty hardships. It’s quite carthic.”

“Of that I’ve no doubt,” says Brigid, “But what have you done just for you?”

“Lots of walking around my void ships, taking in the ambiance, and letting my thoughts unwind. I like sitting at the prow and staring at the stars with nothing but my armour between me and the void.”

“That does sound peaceful, but when was the last time you did something dumb, like read crass fiction, or idled an hour away in the noosphere, laughing at poorly proportioned digital avatars? When did you last do something fun and wasteful?”

“Ah, probably beer pong with Thorfinn, er, three months ago.”

“Oh dear.”

“Now that you mention it, I should probably take more time off.”

“We both should, and it probably won’t happen, because that’s who we are. Responsible, yet irresponsible adults.”

I chuckle, “True.”

“Neither of us are needed on watch today though, so let's make the most of it.”

“I didn’t know you booked the whole day off.”

“Today is part of the six days on, four days off cycle of the watches. We’ll need to arrange more than a fancy meal before I risk my limited holiday allotment.”

“Fair enough. Why don’t we start now?”

“You really are being spontaneous today. Sure, I’m game. We can work out our list of joint projects another day,” says Brigid.

“How about we team up in a buggy race in a simulator for now.”

“Oh, designing that pram already? Shouldn’t I have a say in this?”

“Not that sort of buggy!”

Brigid laughs, “Oh wow, your expression. That was great.” We stand and Brigid links her arm with mine, then points dramatically at the door. “Lead on, Captain!”

We head to my private quarters on Iron Crane. Brigid squeezes into my simulator pod alongside me. It neither fits nor works for two, but then, we never quite get around to turning it on anyway.

Instead, we do something else to make my heart race along its one track mind. When she leaves, I can’t keep the grin off my face.

Our relationship really has been a long time in coming.