Synth

When TO and DH got back to the main living area, they saw that Vik had already returned. The tiny hacker sat at the makeshift office he had created for himself on TO’s workstation and was typing away at some project or another. When the elevator door opened, their little ears perked up, and they turned around to see who it was. Upon seeing DH, their ears dropped again.

“Ah, hello DH!” he said, his voice over-happy in stark contrast to the way his tail and ears drooped. It was disconcerting to TO, but they reminded themselves that the ear movements of Vik’s species may show the same depth of emotion as their own, and the movements could be more a sign of attentiveness or alertness. Perhaps having lower ears showed that Vik was more relaxed than he was a moment ago. Maybe, but TO didn’t really believe that. Oddly, the overall gestures for larger emotions–joy, sorrow, anger–all seemed similar among different species, and idly TO wondered if there was perhaps some common ancestors way back in the primordial days of live developing in the Galaxy, or if it was more a result of convergent evolution.

DH glanced away from Vik at first, but behind them GiDi gave DH’s back a little nudge, and DH grunted in response to Vik as opposed to simply ignoring them.

“Well, you get to work then,” GiDi said. “I need to get back to others and help Pearla. We’re still getting things organized, but mostly we’re trying to keep the kids from getting scared or bored. The first day they were just excited to look out the window, but now they’re getting restless, so we’re trying to think of some kind of schedule to keep them on.” They looked to DH, “Maybe you could help with that when you’re done your work? You’re good with kids.”

“Maybe…” DH said, pointedly not looking at Vik, “I’d like to get out of this room for a bit… but I don’t want to leave TO alone.”

“… Hey, I’d be here.” Vik said softly.

The sympathy that TO had for Vik was limited, however, they felt a little more generous towards him now that they knew how everything with the fail-safe went down. Even if that wasn’t the case, though, there was just a point where TO could practically feel the hurt come off of Vik. It could have been anyone, and TO still would have felt bad at this point. They turned around, intending to tell DH in Synth Speak to be kinder, but as soon as they did, they changed their mind. It seemed that DH already felt bad for how they spoke, judging by the way their ears flicked down, a guilty droop curving the upper edge of their long ears.

As they looked past DH, they caught GiDi’s glance from behind their mate. The conversation TO and GiDi had then, if it were to be called that, was entirely one of ears- a combination of movements giving more complex meaning; Helpless, frustrated, hopeful, worried.

“At any rate…” GiDi said, “DH, you have that tech stuff to work on, right? So, you focus on that. The sooner that’s all taken care of, the better. I’m sure TO would like to have their chip back soon. “

“I would.” TO said, “Very much so, yes.” The last few days they had been laying in bed, drifting in and out of sleep and consciousness. The lack of mental stimulation hadn’t been a problem then, since their mind was happy to float listlessly through the nebula of their mind. Now, while they didn’t know if they’d have the mental fortitude to work on anything intense, they wanted something to occupy their mind in their waking hours. Not having their chip meant they had no way to do that.

“Right. I’ll get started.” DH said before turning back to GiDi, “And… I’ll start with Flit’s thing.”

“Thank you.” They said, a sigh of relief escaping them as their ears relaxed slightly. “I’ll head on up then and I’ll check in later.” They looked over to Vik. “Let me know if you need anything.”

“I will,” was Vik’s quiet response. Even with TO’s limited ability to discern tone, they could hear the broken defeat in Vik’s voice. Even his typing seemed somehow melancholy.

“And DH.” GiDi said, switching briefly to Synth Speak. The switch took DH off guard, and they turned around quickly again to watch GiDi’s ears as they spoke. “Give Vik a chance, hmm?”

“I will, but he needs to-“ Whatever DH was going to say, they couldn’t finish as the door to the elevator suddenly closed.

“It’s odd that GiDi would rush off like that,” TO said, sticking to Galactic common instead of switching to Synth Speak. “It was almost rude.”

“It’s not their fault.” DH said, sighing as they pushed TO towards the bed, “We had to set the elevator up to go between floors on a schedule since the only way to activate it right now is my chip and the main computer system.” They brought TO to the edge of the bed and leaned down, letting TO wrap their arms around DH’s neck so DH could lift them from the bed. TO hated so helpless but in truth, they enjoyed it when DH lifted them up in their arms, holding them close and carefully before laying them on the bed. DH had only carried them like that once before, back in training, when that awful migraine made them so sick and DH had to carry them to the medical bay. TO couldn’t enjoy it back then, but now they could fully appreciate how easily DH lifted them, how firm their chest was, and how solid DH’s arms felt as they cradled TO.

Clearly, this appreciation showed on their ears if the slight smile and the cocky twitch of DH’s slightly blue ears were any evidence. “Alright.” DH said as though they had noticed nothing, “I can put on a show for you if you like while I’m working. Your medication won’t be strong enough to really knock you out today.” They adjusted some pillows behind TO’s head and carefully arranged their leg on the bed, “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“N-no,” TO said, hoping that DH wouldn’t call them on the lie that their brilliant blue ears signaled.

“Alright.” DH said, amused, “Well, if there is, let me know.” They said as they stood upright, “I’ll get to work, but I’ve got an alarm set for two hours-“

“Why two hours?” TO asked.

“For your medication,” DH said, “I have it timed so you won’t have any dips in the painkillers in your system.”

“Is that necessary?” TO asked, their ears dipping, “I mean, I’m sure others might need-“

“It’s entirely necessary, and I will not be accepting any argument on you from this.” momentarily, DH took on that Medical Officer persona with their ears flicked back slightly in a way that allowed no argument, but in the next second their demeanor relaxed and they leaned in to give TO a soft, warm kiss. It wasn’t something TO was expecting as Vik was still in the room with them but despite their surprise, they were happy enough to return the kiss for the moments that it lasted. As DH pulled away and set up a screen for TO to watch a show, TO was content to lie in momentary, languid bliss. It wasn’t until DH went back to their own desk to work that TO pulled themself out of that state. The desire to call DH back to them, to ask them to lie down alongside TO for a while, was strong, hindered, and ultimately abandoned only by Vik’s presence.

They only watched a moment before a loud clunk drew their attention once more. They looked over to DH’s desk to make sure that their mate was ok and saw that they were fine. The sound had simply come from DH putting Flit’s mechanical leg on their desk. A handful of wires came out with them, and DH began plugging wires into ports in the main consol.

“Is something wrong with Flit’s leg?” Vik asked as they watched DH plug the leg in. DH only gave a quick grunt in response at first, but then their ears dipped in guilt and they cleared their voice.

“There’s not, not that I know of.” DH said, “I’m doing a scan to make sure there’s nothing wrong with.”

Vik’s ears flicked back. “Was there any malfunction?” he asked. “I mean, it is my programming. I'd be able to find any flaws in my scripts-“

“There was no malfunction.” DH said, their ears once more flicking back, “I’m looking to see if there’s any unexpected programming or hardware in it.”

“Oh.” Vik said, his entire body seeming to slump as he realized what DH was saying. He watched in silence for several more moments as DH plugged in the last of the wires and opened up some program on their computer. With a few quickly typed commands, a dense screen of coding that TO couldn’t begin to understand came up. As the rows and rows of coding loaded, the tilt of DH’s ears told TO that despite DH’s superior coding and computer skills, this would not be an easy task.

If only TO was better at coding, then they could help. As it was, TO knew that anything they tried to do to help would only make things harder for DH.

They’d never know if Vik had picked up on the mood behind the movement of DH’s ears or not, but as the weight of the task before them settled on DH Vik suddenly abandoned his own computer, ceasing their constant typing as he jumped down from his workstation and then leapt back up onto DH’s desk.

“What do you want-“

“Let me help.” Vik said before DH could finish their sentence. “You can look over it all, and poke at everything, but I can show you how some of my weirder scripting works. You’ll see the logic in it... you’ll be able to tell the things I’m telling you aren’t lies, and I’ll even help you test anything you want!”

The sudden flurry of movement in DH’s ears told an entire story to TO: distrust, anger, and guilt, but also sadness and hope.

“... Fine.” DH said as they shifted slightly so Vik could properly see the screen, “You can help because I have to check all the chips after this, but yes: I will test anything remotely odd that I see.”