milliways_bar | (no subject)

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There's an especially annoyed Man in Black in the bar.

K strides from the Front Door straight to a booth, not missing a step as he calls out, "Bar, a bourbon and anything you have on Remelian heavy construction methods and materials specifications, please."

By the time he slides into the booth, a glass and two imposing manuals appear on the table with a slight *bamph*.

"Thank you, darlin'"

Next to these K puts down a PDA for note-taking and an odd device that, with a flick of the switch, creates a small hologram of New York's Guggenheim Museum. Except this one seems to have been screwed halfway into the ground.

K barely has the first manual open before he starts grumbling about "goddamn Remelian practical jokes."

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"Well, it's sort of tied to that first Mother thing."

"The way I understand it, you didn't expect to be female? How's that work?"

"It's a matter of probability," she says, pushing a stray lock of hair out of her eyes. "I might have told you before that Horta don't develop gender until the end of our cycle.

"Well, when we do engender, it's not the roughtly 50/50 ratio that many humanoids have." She snorts. "It's more like 1 to 999,999,999."

Ok, even K will blink at that.

"So, hold on a second. Does that mean you might take over her spot some day?"

She closes her eyes tightly. "If Random wasn't blowing vapor with his prediction and if the fact that I have apparently defaulted to a female form twice means that either physiologically or psychologically I tend that way, then yes, I will be come a Mother if not the Mother. Some of our most distant memories tell that, if Horta population falls, more than one will be engendered and we did have a rather severe pre-hatch population drop in my generation."

Her eyes open with a slightly haunted look. "But, if that is the case, I do not look forward to it."

K hestitates, seeing that look in her eyes.

"All right. Naraht, you have every right to tell me, as a friend, to go to hell with this next question. No apology needed."

"But why aren't you looking forward to that? Wouldn't it be an honor?"

Of course, K knows perfectly well that most honors don't come without a heavy price.

"It is...but to be the only one left of my generation," she sighs. "The males die after mating, you see. Then having to guard, raise and to some extent govern the next by myself..."

She shakes her head. "I don't think I'm up to that particular challenge."

A sad smile creeps across her face. "At least I have 49,000 years to try to get ready if that is the case, but still.."

...

That's a heavy price, all right.

"Well, yeah, you've certainly got some time to get a head start. That's a burden to bear, though, Naraht, no lie."

"Sort of makes you wonder, doesn't it, if that might be why Bar brought you here? Maybe this place could be a refuge. At least, you know it's going to be around 'til then."

"Just a thought anyway."

"Somehow I doubt this is standard Mother training," she says with dark humor. "But...perhaps you're right."

She smiles at him. "Thanks, K."

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