Watching Yute Page 9

  “Are you and her…?”

  “Heh. No, We’re not romantically compatible in the slightest. She’s my watch partner though. She’s fun. But feeling particularly squirrelly this morning.

  The shower cooled Cassidy’s head significantly. Staring at water dribble off your face and onto the tile for a while was always meditative. One of those little silly aeki lizards wandered into the stall from under the partition, and tried to dodge droplets, ending up on the wall.

  A good honest little crush might be just what Cassidy needed right now. Brandy wasn’t bothering her much now. A little harmless, pointless crush could be a good distraction. Even if it went nowhere. A cleansing of the palette as it were. The lizard decided that the lower wall was still under too much threat of droplets, and wiggled its way up half a metre or so.

  She can have a crush and keep it to herself, look a little bit, and still remain professional and friendly. She leaned down to look the lizard in the eye.

  “She’s just cute, huh? I can handle that.”

  Cassidy walked back into the barrack in shorts and a tank for sleeping in. She toweled her hair, with her hat hanging off her pinky. Cheryl was laying on her own bunk, writing into a little book, and Cassidy found herself unconsciously walking slowly, giving her time to look at Cheryl longer. She dried her hair with vigor, as if the flurry of hair and terrycloth would hide her eyes, in case Cheryl looked up. Damn those shorts of hers.

  “Oh, Cassidy,” Cheryl suddenly said, “Where are the towels, anyway? I really need a shower. I got kind of dusted by sand when I got here.” Oh great, put that image in her head now. First the shorts, now she wants a shower. Fine, fine, behave. Don’t be such a freak.

  Cassidy put on her hat under the towel, and tied her hair back like she usually did, then tossed the towel at the hamper. She pointed towards the supply closet. “Just inside the door there, on the right side. Gotta kind of peek around the edge.”

  “Thanks.” Cheryl smiled politely, and then went back to her writing.

  “Taking notes?” Cassidy said, settling into bed.

  “Hm?” Cheryl looked at Cassidy, then back at her little book. “Oh. Hm.” She sounded like she had been caught in a guilty pleasure. “Just my diary. I know, I know, I’m a little old for a diary, but…”

  “Nah, that’s cool. I guess it’s a good way to decompress your thoughts.”

  Cheryl nodded. “Well put. It’s... therapeutic.”

  “And cute.” Cassidy said, with a tone that almost sounded grumpy.

  Cheryl closed her diary and held it up to look at. “What’s so cute about it?”

  Cassidy stifled a soft laugh, and rolled over to go to sleep. “Nevvvvvermind.”

  Cheryl shrugged it off, and went back to writing for a moment. “You wear that hat when you sleep?”

  Cassidy smiled contentedly, wide enough that Cheryl could tell even though Cassidy had her back turned. “Yup. It’s my hat.” The words were laced with affection for her headwear.

  “Cute.” Cheryl said. “Is it your teddy bear?”

  “You don’t wear a teddy bear on your head all day.” Cassidy giggled a little. “Imagine if people did? Could you just see drill formation with everyone with a teddy bear on their head?”

  ~~~

  Kirison was back home. After taking a blood sample to check on his ‘insurance policy’ he got to work formulating some toys. Toys to assist Elder Horad and his little militia in the quest against those ‘occupying’ the Yute temple, and holding back the ‘strength of the Aguei’.

  Since Kirison had no intent on going there himself, he needed to be able to send a very specialized, tiny device. While he was at it, he might be able to supply a tactical advantage.

  The problem was that his equipment would blatantly give away that the spirit thing was a huge load of B.S.. So, it was arts and crafts time. A convincingly designed trinket would be able to carry the nanites, but the next decision was what manner of Aguei charm would be convincing.

  He popped onto the net, looking at various Aguei crafts. Hmm. Wood looked like an ideal medium. The porous nature of the grain would give ample elbow room for nanites to work without making any outwardly visible marks. Yup yup, wood was the trick.

  But what design? A figure? He didn't have the skill to carve something like that. Something more abstract. Heck, it didn’t even have to look entirely accurate. After all, this item was going to be ‘magic’, capable of things that even Horad hadn’t considered. Such a token would almost be expected to look unique. Ha. Yes. It was coming together.

  ~~~~~

  :::C /14

  ~~~~~

  Cassidy awoke. Her eyes opened gradually, and she found herself looking across to Cheryl’s bunk. Cheryl was sleeping. And adorable. Cassidy scorned herself silently and sat up. Ahead of her was Cipriana’s bunk, and she was in it, meditating, with the butterfly design behind her on the wall as if it were supervising. She opened her eyes. “Good morning, Cassidy.”

  Technically it was afternoon. Cipriana’s presence told Cassidy as much, since it meant morning watch was over. “Hey Cip” Cassidy said groggily. She looked back at Cheryl for a moment, and started putting herself together.

  Cipriana gently nodded towards Cheryl, and looked to Cassidy. “Is that going to be a problem for you?”

  Cassidy chuckled softly. Cipriana didn’t miss a thing. “Nah.” She stretched. “I’ll soldier through. If I can’t be professional, it’s my problem.” Cipriana only commented with one of her soft smiles, and then closed her eyes, returning to meditation.

  Cassidy cleaned up, and hit the mess to grab a muffin and a shot of OJ. Alan was there, and mentioned that he’d be doing a fresh load of cookies later on, but told Cassidy to keep it under her hat, and not to tell the ‘stupid greedy apes’. She munched her little breakfast, and pecked around the net on her terminal a bit.

  Karl passed by, and it reminded her that she had to look up 'hot Karl'. Her discovery almost caused her to spit a mouthful of muffin.

  “Huh?” Alan asked. Cassidy was still forcing down a case of the giggles, and just waved Alan off “N-nothing.”

  Feeling an abundance of energy, she grabbed one of the wooden spears and headed out for the ‘exercise square’ Maxine had shown her before.

  It was a short distance from the base when Cassidy saw Marcus, sitting on the ground, meditating much in the way that Cipriana often did. “Hey, Chief.”

  Marcus opened his eyes with a warm earthy smile. “Oh, hey Leftenent Cassidy. How’re things going?”

  She replied in a similarly easygoing tone, without breaking stride. “Can’t complain.”

  “Good good. Oh, by the way, Armil’s coming for that blessing tomorrow.”

  “Ar- Oh yeah, the Grand Elder! That’s tomorrow? Maxine told me about that, and told me to reprimand you for not telling me.”

  “Ah, oops.”

  “Yeah. That’s sorta the kind of thing a person likes a heads up about. Did you tell Cheryl yet?”

  “Oops. Again. Well, I’m doing her first shift tonight, like I did with you. I’ll get her up to speed.”

  “Tsk tsk, Marcus. I’m going to have to mark a demerit on your record if this kind of thing keeps up.”

  Marcus chuckled. “Yes, Sir!”

  She giggled back, and continued on her way. Marcus closed his eyes, and resumed meditation.

  “Don’t forget!” She called out several metres later.

  “Yes Sir!”

  Cassidy made it to the square to find Maxine already there, doing her ‘tai chi with a stick’ thing. “Aha!” Cassidy said, surprising her a little, “I have found you!” She imitated bad old martial arts movies. “At last I can avenge the dishonour you have committed to my xylophone! You must do battle with me!”

  Maxine almost dropped her spear. “What the hell!?”

  “Meh.”

  “Xylophone?”

  “Just the first thing that popped into my head. It was either that or goat. But dishonouring
a goat had other ugly connotations.”

  “I... suppose it would! What’s got you in such a good mood?”

  Cassidy smirked and shrugged. “Good night’s sleep, I guess.” She swirled her spear dramatically.

  Maxine smirked back. “Why do I think there’s a bit more to it than that?”

  For a split second, Cassidy considered telling Maxine about how potentially distracting she found Cheryl, but thought better of it. No need to fuel any gossipy-thought. Bad enough that Cipriana felt she knew. She changed the subject as she went into some very aggressive movements aimed at an invisible foe. “Nah. I think I’m just getting used to this place. Hey, odd question...”

  “Yeah?” Maxine started her own slow routine again.

  “I just saw Marcus meditating like Cip does. It made me wonder.. are those two an item or something?”

  “Hm.” Maxine stopped, and leaned on her spear. “Funny you should say that.. I remember once wondering the same thing. But I’m pretty sure they’re not.” She continued her routine. “He's almost old enough to be her dad. Besides, it’s not like meditation is rare around here. A lot of us do it.”

  “Really. Wow, I never knew this was such a zen unit.”

  “Marcus blames the ghost.” Maxine said, ending a wide stroke with her spear pointing at the temple. “Says it’s a peaceful influence.”

  Cassidy shrugged. Might explain the odd look she’d seen in Marcus’ eyes sometimes. Other people here also had the same unusual expression sometimes. But come to think of it, she hadn’t noticed it so much anymore. “Max’.. I got another odd question.” She stopped and leaned on her spear again.

  “Shoot.”

  “Do people outside of the unit ever.. look at you funny?”

  Maxine leaned on her spear as well, and smiled a little. “Thousand year stare.”

  “Huh?”

  Maxine’s voice came almost like she was quoting something from rote. “Being this close to this ancient place, being at peace. It changes you. People notice you’re different, but they don’t know why.”

  “Marcus again?”

  Maxine nodded. “Says people aren’t used to seeing a soldier looking so at peace.”

  Cassidy chuckled. “Well, I don’t feel much different, but I guess I’ve already developed the stare. I had a weird time when I went back to central.”

  “It’s kind of like jumping out of a warm shower and into a draft, huh? It takes a bit to get used to that whole mindset again.”

  “Hm.” Made sense maybe. And with the whole Brandy breakup, that whole memory was sitting there waiting for her at central. It struck her that the rebound-factor was a whole other reason to not drool over Cheryl too much. Drool on Cheryl’s cute-factor, and write her off as a romantic impossibility. Rebound from afar. Yes. A good plan. Besides, she didn’t even know Cheryl. “So, have you met the new girl yet?”

  Maxine smirked “Yeah… cute huh?”

  “What? I guess. I didn’t notice. I wasn’t really looking. Is she?”

  “You didn’t notice? Cass, I’m straight, and I noticed.”

  Cassidy replied in a somewhat hasty tone. “What? What, you think just cuz I’m a lesbian, I’m on the prowl all the time? It’s not like I can’t separate personal and professional things.”

  “I think thou doth protest too much.”

  “Oh, shush.”

  After a while, Cassidy headed back to the base. This place was too small to keep a secret. Little detectives like Maxine were sure to have rumors floating around soon enough. Not that she resented it exactly. Maxine … heck, everyone was nice enough about things, but if people got it in their heads that she liked Cheryl, her efforts to ignore the notion herself would become moot. No doubt some well-meaning compatriot, probably Maxine, would investigate the possibility of Cassidy and Cheryl becoming an item. And she had already decided she wasn’t going down that path. Maxine would just find out Cheryl was straight, and probably trigger some kind of awkwardness.

  She should nip this in the bud. Talk to Maxine about it. Lay her cards on the table before people start guessing. Well, not all her cards. Talk about the Brandy/rebound thing, and just avoid mentioning Cheryl altogether. Yes. A cunning plan.

  Cassidy went to the mess and downed a sandwich as a late lunch, and nabbed a couple cookies. There was still a lot of time before her watch, but it might be a good idea to try to nap now. She didn’t know if she’d have much time between the end of watch and the coming of Grand Elder Armil.

  She went back to the barrack and made small talk with Cipriana and Wanda, then settled into her bunk, and pulled the brim of her hat down an extra few centimetres.

  Wouldn’t you know it, the second you get comfy, nature calls. She got up and headed to the washroom. Someone was in one of the shower stalls. She ignored whoever it was and did what she came to do. Cassidy was almost back in the hall when she heard a little yelp of surprise.

  “You okay in there?” Cassidy asked, ambling towards the stall.

  The voice replied, “Um. There’s something in here.”

  “Is that Cheryl?”

  “Yeah, there’s a lizard in here!”

  Cassidy chuckled to herself. Maybe this was a rite of passage around here. Well, now Cassidy knew it was Cheryl’s bare ankles she could see. Nice ankles. Not that she didn’t see them before, but these were the bare ankles of a nekkid Cheryl. “Oh, those things are harmless. They apparently wander in here chasing the moisture.”

  “Well... what am I supposed to do?” Cheryl sounded a little unnerved.

  “Ignore it? Sometimes I talk to them. And no, they don’t talk back.”

  “I.. er.. it’s creepy!”

  Cassidy thought she was being a bit silly. Quite un-military. But it was also somewhat cute. “Uhm.. I’d come in and help, but unless you shower in a swimsuit.. uh… nekkidness.“ It wasn’t outside normalcy for military comrades to see each other naked in the shower but when possible, Cassidy avoided it. “Well, where is it?”

  “It’s smack dab in the middle of the divider on my right.”

  “Kay. I got an idea. Stand against the back wall.” Cassidy walked into the adjoining stall.

  “Uh.. why?”

  “Because if this doesn’t work like I think, the lizard is going to fly across the stall, at the opposite wall.”

  Cheryl hastily got against the back wall. “What the heck are you going to do?”

  Cassidy steadied her left shoulder against the opposite side of the metal partition, and punched sharply with her right fist. Without hesitation, she dropped to the floor. On the other side, the falling lizard caused Cheryl to yelp a little again. Cassidy quickly reached out to grab it.

  “See? They’re nice.” She held her hand under the partition, showing Cheryl the securely held critter. It was only now that Cassidy realized she could see Cheryl’s nekkid knees. Oooh, knees.

  “Okay, that’s nice, thankyou. I don’t need to see any more.”

  Cassidy stood, and looked at her captive lizard closely with a smile. “Aeki aeki, aeki.”

  “Achy?” Cheryl asked, continuing with her shower.

  “Aeki! That’s what they’re called. You should really try to like them. They’re pretty common around here. Anyway, I’ll take him outside.” Cassidy started on her way out.

  “Kay! Thanks again Cassie!”

  Cassidy stopped mid-stride for a moment. ‘Cassie’? Cassie. She always hated that nickname. She almost corrected Cheryl… but coming from her… it didn’t sound so bad. She kept going, and smiled at her little squirming friend, asking it questions via imaginary telepathy. “So, little aeki.. can’t resist peekin', can you? May as well tell me. Did you take pictures?”

  Cassidy made it outside and went a few metres further to a chunk of ruined wall from another building. Before setting the lizard down on it, she spoke to it out loud. “So? Last chance.” She held it up and looked it in the eye. “Not talkin’? Fine. What good are ya?” She put it down, and turned to see Marcus
strolling out.

  He stopped to ask Cassidy “Interrogate lizards a lot?”

  Cassidy huffed a small laugh, and saluted sharply. “Sir! After apprehending the insurgent, the aeki was decidedly uncooperative. It was not violent or armed, so I’m just kicking the bum out! Sir!”

  Marcus righted his posture and saluted back. “Very well Leftenent Cassidy! Keep up the good work! As you were!” He then continued on his way.

  Cassidy woke from her power-nap in plenty of time to put herself together for her next watch. She had slept better than she expected though. Cheryl was already gone, no doubt getting the official tour from Marcus before her first watch.

  Cassidy met up with Jim on the way to the temple, and they were shortly at their station, on guard. She could see Marcus and Cheryl posted at the north door, talking.

  She remembered she had some Jim-teasing to do. “So……. Jim. Jimmy. Jimmerino.”

  “Whaaat?”

  “So I looked up ‘hot karl’.”

  “Thankyou. Now you know why you can’t call Karl that?”

  “Oh. Oh yes. Indeed. That’s disgusting.”

  “No kidding.”

  “I’m curious about one thing though, Jimmerino.”

  Jim sighed. “Alrighty, what is it?”

  “Why do you want to give a hot karl to hot Karl? That’s sick. I just don’t get men. No fucking wonder why I’m a lesbian.”

  Jim erupted “I don’t want to give Karl a hot karl!!“ Jim lowered his head and sighed an exasperated sigh. “You done yet?”

  “Yeah. That should do it.”

  Laughter was heard from a nearby post.

  “Great. Spiffy.” Jim grumbled.

  “Really though, any progress on the Karl front?”

  “Hrm. Well, not really. At this point it just comes down to me getting the confidence to approach him.”

  “Oh, so you found out he’s gay?”