The Technician's Fight, Draft 1, CH02

“You don’t have to do this,” Brelendrirano said. “He referred to me as Alpha,” Gralgiran countered. She scoffed. “If a civilian does that,

“You don’t have to do this,” Brelendrirano said.

“He referred to me as Alpha,” Gralgiran countered.

She scoffed. “If a civilian does that, you ask them to stop, pointing out there are consequences to them using that title. What’s this really about, Gral?”

He leaned back in the seat, thinking back to how hard Jeremy had fought to go on the pirate ship. “I’m realizing that Jer isn’t the kind of male who’ll stay out of a situation he believes he can help with, regardless of how dangerous it is.”

“You’re just realizing this now? You’re the one who named him ‘my little warrior’.”

He nodded. He’d felt the name appropriate for how Jeremy had fought against what was done to him. Against the threats made to keep them from being together. He hadn’t expected the meaning to run deeper.

“Maybe I was hoping for a nice civilian who’d wait for me at home to reward me when I return from a hunt like in—”

Brelendrirano’s laughter exploded out of her, and she bent forward, falling out of her seat. Gralgiran fought the urge to get out of his and make sure she was okay. As impressive as her falling out of the bowl shaped seat was, she was still laughing.

Laughing at him.

“Beta, should I remind you of protocol when in your Alpha’s presence?”

“Put an egg in it and swallow,” she replied between laughs.

That was why the instructors warned against alphas being friends with their hunters. It caused a blurring of the ranks which led to them taking liberties.

She pulled herself up with visible effort, still chuckling. “A civilian? You’ve had your pick of civilians, if that was what you were interested in. I can think of a certain pilot who would have looked at you like you were your namesake, welcoming him to the Forest for his reward.” She leveled a now steady gaze on him as she sat. “Who ever you decided on, was always going to be someone with claws and a fire in his heart.”

“Jer doesn’t have claws.”

“You’ve missed his gloves for this long? After you said he’d need them?”

“Maybe I’d hoped for someone….” Who was he trying to convince? She certainly didn’t need it. Her arguments weren’t he shouldn’t be doing this. But questioning why he was. “I don’t want to lose him again. I don’t want to risk him deciding he needs to help resulting in him being put in a situation he can’t handle. It was fine when all we were doing was getting him ready to defend himself against the next Earther’s attempt to kidnap him, because those will always happen with some of us around to assist. But he was left alone. He ordered the hunter left with him to leave him alone, and it could have resulted in his death. If he’d been properly trained as a hunter, he would have known to never send his escort away, no matter what it sounded like was happening elsewhere.”

“No matter how relieved the hunter was to be released so he could go to his pack’s rescue,” she added.

Gralgiran nodded. He was glad the hunter’s beta had already seen to his chastising, because he couldn’t trust himself to keep it just.

“I’m willing to change his training,” she said. “If he agrees to it.”

“I don’t know if he’s going to understand—”

“Then you need to make him understand, Gral. I can’t train someone who doesn’t want to be a hunter. You know it’s nothing like just learning how to fight. We need to learn how to think. How to stop letting the odds dictate what we’ll do. That what we do means something, even when we don’t understand what. If we need to die so our people live, we need to be willing to die.”

“I don’t want him to die.”

She snorted. “You don’t want any of your hunters to die, so there’s no change there. But we are willing to die. He needs to be too. If the gods demand it.”

If they dared, he was going to have words with them when he reached the Forest and their answers had better please him if they wanted something to remain of their domain.

“Alright. I will explain the situation, and if I can convince him, you will start his hunter training.”

“Oh, I hope he does, because I can not wait to find out what the Leadership does about there being a non-Kelsirian hunter.”

“He is Kelsirian,” Gralgiran stated. “So there is nothing they can say.”

She raised her hands in defeat, but kept grinning. He had to agree with her that the Leadership would try to make something of this. Let them. He was willing to take on the gods for his Heart. His people’s military leaders were nothing compared to them.

“Now that that’s settled. Any idea how it is Jer actually survived his capture?”

“They’re pirates,” she replied. “One of them thought they knew who he was and figured they could make money selling him back to the Earthers.”

He nodded. “With an Earther on their crew, it gave them a way to make that happen.”

“Not that she seemed likely too. According to your Heart, she didn’t think the Earther would pay them. They’d take him and kill everyone else. Makes me question why we wanted to shepherd them into the Federation.”

“Aggression isn’t criteria for rejection,” he replied, pulling up Jeremy’s report. “If it was, we wouldn’t be part of it.” It wasn’t properly written, not quite a civilian’s version, but it lacked attention to detail that mattered to him, to the hunt. Such as one of the pirate crew, indicating she had knowledge of a force they knew to be antagonistic to them. Most of it was about the reactor, the dangerous modification and mix of species technologies someone had done. Of his attack, he mentioned the species. There was an attempt at giving an evaluation of their combat capabilities. Of the Earther, he mentioned her presence and nothing more. Something else he would have known to write properly if he’d received hunter training.

“Anything else Earther related that didn’t make it to the reports?” Hunters sometimes forgot details as they calmed down from the hunt, which they wouldn’t realize they had even as they recounted the stories to their friends after the fact. It was why he had a handful of betas arrange for victory celebrations so they could listen in on those stories and compare them to the reports.

“Nothing relevant. Someone mentioned there were no signs she’d slept with anyone on the crew.”

“Not all Earthers will be free with having sex outside their species.”

“Hey, I’ve only come across two of them before now. One’s with you, and the other one had no problem enjoying the attention his exoticism brought. And now, some of us understand why your Heart is more than enough for you sexually. The endurance I’ve seen Technician Jeremy Bradshaw demonstrate while training takes on a new aspect when applied to sex.”

“We are both quite satisfied with each other,” replied as the only confirmation he was willing to give.

“What are we doing with that Earther?” she asked.

“I don’t know yet. I’ve already filed the reports with the respective government of the other pirates, so they’ll be claimed and they can deal with their punishment as well as the fallout of the responsibilities for their actions. But she’s a different case.”

“It’s not like the Federation has the agreements with them to facilitate that.”

“That is one of the issue.” He shook his head at the inquisitive tilt of her ear. He wasn’t willing to discuss that until he’d questioned the Earther. And he figured that tomorrow she’d be in a receptive state, after two days alone in a cell.

He stood. “Thank you for your assistance, Beta. Go home, enjoy life.”

She grinned. “You go do the same.”

He would. Jeremy was still riding the post hunt survival need to prove he was still alive.

*

He entered the apartment to the smell and sound of roasting meat.

When Jeremy had asked for an apartment with a food preparation area, Gralgiran hadn’t expected his eating habits to change as much as they had. Jeremy had told him about his cooking while they were separated, but there was always a ‘I have nothing better to do’ sense with those, with hints of problem solving in translating non-Earther ingredients into Earther recipes.

But as soon as they had moved in, Jeremy had started cooking. There had been horrible things Gralgiran had only been willing to test because his Heart made them. Earthers had a liking for sweets that terrified him.

The spicy meats had been good, although being presented with a large chunk of it to cut himself had left him feeling like he needed to rush, like if he couldn’t take the time to properly prepare his food, it had to mean he was in danger and hurrying was the only solution. Jeremy had been considerate after that and cut his portions ahead of time. He clearly enjoyed the act of ‘digging in’ to his food.

His Heart was watching the items on the cooktop, instead of doing something to them, so Gralgiran wrapped his arms around him and nuzzled the side of his neck.

“Welcome home.” Jeremy leaned back into him, turning his head and exposing more of the neck.

Gralgiran licked it, his heart picking up speed and another part of his anatomy coming to attention. There was something about bare flesh being exposed to his teeth like this that excited him. He nibbled before straightening. “Food smells good. What did you make?”

“Simple roasted rajerania with a selection of sauce.”

“Selection? Finally giving up getting me to accept saucing my meats while cooking?”

“Leiha explained why you prefer multiple sauces over a singular way of preparing the meat during my session with her.”

“Oh, and what was her insight?”

“It’s a social thing. You’ve always lived in groups, and it was impossible for everyone to prepare their own food while still fighting for survival. So the pack’s Chef had to come up with ways to accommodate everyone without making their work so difficult they couldn’t keep up with it, and making sauces for everyone was the solution.”

“That sounds plausible enough.”

“You don’t agree?”

He chuckled. “I have idea why we started. All I can tell you is that our ballads depict even the gods eating this way, so we’ve been doing for a very long time.”

“Go wash up. I’ll have everything finished by the time you come back.”

Jeremy’s smell told him his Heart wanted to shower with him, but he didn’t voice it, so Gralgiran respected it. They’d have all evening to make up for missing that session of sex.

*

Gralgiran smiled at the sound of the utensils being placed on the plate, accompanied with the satisfied sigh.

“Okay, I out done myself this time.”

“I agree. The meat was delicious by itself. And the sauces covered a lot of flavors.”

“I noticed you didn’t try the plum sauce,” Jeremy said with a chuckle.

“I can smell how sweet that is. The one you called sweet and sour was bad enough, but this one smells of pure sweetness.”

“And yet you eat fruits.”

“We don’t add sweeteners to them. We also don’t do whatever you do to them for your pies. Fruits are for wines and to be enjoyed as they are.”

“Then explain Doromin.”

“You don’t drink that directly,” Gralgiran replied in disgust, remembering walking in on Jeremy putting a spoonful of the stuff in his mouth. “It’s for…” he motioned helplessly. “I don’t know what the cooks use it for. I’m guessing some of the sauces that have a slight sweetness to them.”

“Slight is too strong a word for what’s in those,” Jeremy said, taking the plates.

Gralgiran took the platter of sauce and brought them to the counter. “Jer, we need to talk about something.”

His Heart’s clearly humorous replied was swallowed. “Okay,” he said tentatively, pushing the remnants of the sauces in to the recycler.

He rested back against the counter. “What you did, demanding to be allowed on the pirate ship. That was dangerous. Please let me finish,” he added at the heat he saw in Jeremy’s eyes and the tightening of his jaw. “You did well. You protected the packs there by keeping the reactor from exploding. But you placed yourself in danger, and you called me Alpha.”

“You are the Alpha.”

“I’m not the civilian’s Alpha. Civilians don’t call me that, because those who are allowed to use that title for me also demand my protection.”

“You don’t need to give me anything you don’t want to.”

Gralgiran chuckled. “I’ll protect you no matter what, Jer. You know that. This is about what it means for me to be my hunter’s Alpha. The responsibility that comes with my rank.”

“This feels more serious than you saying you don’t want me calling you Alpha.”

Gralgiran nodded. “I can’t allow a civilian to be in the situation you put yourself in.”

“Oh, come on! You just said I did well.”

“Yes, but you also ordered a hunter who lacked the experience to understand your order wasn’t valid to leave you unguarded.”

“I was nearly done. How was how to know some of those pirates would walk into engineering when they did?”

“That isn’t what this is about.”

“What else can it be?”

“It’s about you not having the training to understand how hunters function.”

“Okay, and?”

“I want you to get that training.”

“I’m not a hunter, Gral. I’m not—”

It had to be the disbelief that stopped him. “Jer. You demanded to be sent onto the front line. That isn’t something a civilian does.”

“Who else was going to do it?”

“Who I ordered.”

“Alix was never doing it.”

“He would have. He’s the Engineer. It’s part of the responsibilities that comes with his rank.”

“He would have gutted you.”

“Yes, he would have. After doing what his captain ordered him to do.”

“I kept that from happening. Gral, don’t you get that’s the only reason I did it?”

“No, it isn’t.”

“Yes, it is. What? You think I look for excuses to throw myself into situations that might end up with me dead?”

“Do you know what the Hunter’s creed is?”

“You die, so others live,” Jeremy replied with a dismissiveness that was borderline insulting.

“We die, so our people live. Do you think we become hunters because we want to die? We do it because it is work that must be done. There must be someone willing to stand before our enemies, no matter the cost, so that the rest of our people have a chance at living. I’m not asking for you to be a hunter because I think you want to die. I’m asking because I know that no matter what you say, when the time comes, you will demand to stand in the way of whatever trouble comes our way, and I need you to be ready.”

“Gral, you’re wrong.”

Gralgiran places his hand on the side of Jeremy’ s face and smiled. “I doubt that. But if it helps, if you don’t take the training, I will never allow you to do this again.”

“You can’t be serious. What if—”

“I am. Jer, I love you too much to allow you to be in danger like this again. Not without knowing you have the training to deal with it.”

“I’m learning how to fight already.”

“That isn’t the same. I need you to learn to be a hunter.”

“And if I don’t, you’re locking in on the ship.”

“Same as I do with every civilians.”

Jeremy searched his eyes, then cursed. “Fine, I’ll take that training, but I’m pissed at you right now.”

“Good.”

Jeremy narrowed his eyes. “Good?”

He smiled, hand moving down and behind his heart. “Yes, because now I can work toward being forgiven.” He squeezed the ass as he pulled the Earther against him.

Outline section 

Going over the reports, Gral finds most of the pirate ship assault to be within expectations. No casualties on their side, though there were some sticky situations due to hidden passages allowing some of the pirate crew to double back around the assault force. This resulted in a situation with Jeremy that Gral is grateful to both Thuruk and the gods didn’t go poorly; though it did point out Jeremy needs to add firearms training to his regimen. The point where Jeremy will legally be recognized as a hunter is coming, and it brings Gral both great pride and a tinge of worry.

Pushing that aside, there is the matter of the unexpected results in the raid. Namely the demographics. The normal expected distribution of most federation species from a mixed crew, plus one surprise; their first human pirate. Gral knew it was going to happen eventually. And based on his heart’s report, their interrogation is going to be interesting.

That will be tomorrow morning, though. Tonight he’s going out with Jeremy as part of a celebration of his first hunt.

###

I do not know if you’ll want to describe their dinner. Doing so feels like it would be crowding the chapter, but you know the density of your writing more than me.

Addition 

The consequences of Jeremy’s action

And already my plans ‘break down'.

I wanted to stick to the outline as tightly as I could until chapter 8 or 9, because that resolution has taken long enough already, but the outline for chapter 2 is now split into two. Which means I need to add a Jeremy chapter as well.

This part of the outline ends up revolving more about starting the process of making Jeremy a hunter, and why. The ‘filing away’ the prisoners is secondary at most.

I didn’t do as good of a job showing their new place as I was hoping, but I think it had more to do with wanting to stay ‘in the moment’ we’ll see what draft 2 brings.