Chapter 617: Interlude

The Second Human/Mantid War was not fought out of revenge. No retaliation for glassing Terra or one of the colonies, no revenge for genocide, nothing so blatant and obvious. Many historians like to point at all kinds of different factors, from economy to specie-ism to expansion of empires. Ultimately, they looks for extremely complex reasons to explain why, after less than a century of peace, Humanity went to war with the Mantid.

The theories of the ivory tower intellectuals, who have never interacted with a Mantid beyond watching a green mantid engineer work on their personal transportation vehicle, or perhaps have been operated on by a russet mantid surgeon, all twist and wind about, missing the real point.

The real reason for the war actually was due to the regrowth of the Omniqueen, the Overqueens, the Queens, and the Speakers, as well as a mass hatching of the Warrior caste.

But what the ivory tower thinkers did not understand was why that led to war.

Because humanity had become friends with the mantid.

And they watched the psychic ruling class crush the minds and free will of their friends.

They watched self-determination and free will be extinguished, they knew their friends had suffered the fate of their ancestors and were trapped inside their own minds.

Screaming.

So why did the Second Human/Mantid War happen?

Paradoxically, because the Mantid were humanity's friend.

--Early Terran History - Post-Diaspora

"How long is she going to do that?" Dee asked from where she was sitting on one of the fallen logs. She had a cigarette in her hand and a bottle of narcobrew in the other.

"Who?" Legion asked, looking over from where he was studying a hologram of a DNA strand.

"Her," Dee said, pointing at the object of her question with her cigarette.

Legion looked over and smiled.

The Neko-Marine was down on one knee, the tip of her Mark-1 Cutting Bar in the dirt, her left hand on the crossbar, her right hand balled into a fist and pressed against the front of her helmet. She was steadily whispering in emoji-Engrish, prayers and hymns to the figure seated in front of her.

The Digital Omnimessiah looked up from where he was carefully braiding Menhit's hair. "She is exuberant in her devotion."

"It's annoying," Dee said, looking back down.

"Then don't look and listen," Legion said, picking up the small marble-like holoprojector. He looked around for a moment. "Where's Daxin?"

"He went that way," Menhit said, jabbing with the stem of her unlit pipe. "Took Fido with him."

Legion stood up and shook his head. "I'll go find him."

"I'll come with you," Dee said, standing up. She flicked her cigarette into the fire and smoothed her dress before grabbing a 12-pack of narcobrew and following Legion into the brush.

The pair moved through the brush and Legion noted that Dee was much quieter than he expected. Soon they could hear the gurgling of water and knew they were getting close to the creek that was next to their campsite.

"Nice of you to bring beer," Legion said.

"Eh, big thugs like him like beer," Dee said, shrugging.

"You know, she's around eight thousand years old and can remember the first time Our Father walked this universe," Legion said, slowing down.

"Still annoying," Dee said.

Legion sighed. "Context doesn't matter?"

Dee shrugged. "I didn't ask you to make her stop. I didn't yell at her to stop. I merely observed it was annoying she's been kneeling right there, praying, for two days."

"But not annoying enough for you to do more than complain about it," Legion asked, raising an eyebrow.

Dee shrugged. "She didn't react to my comment. She explosive violence and rage wrapped in power armor and I might as well not have even spoken. That tells me her belief is genuine, her prayers and devotions are not for show and come from the heart. She's not doing it to show off her piety to all of us, it's real."

"And that makes it annoying," Legion said.

Dee nodded.

"Because you are the Detainee and you wonder when the prayers to you will begin," Legion said. He cocked his head. "You wonder when you will start to hear them like Daxin and I can hear them."

"I'm not exactly someone that they want showing up to answer a prayer," Dee snarled. "I figure after I rip a few people's spines out nobody will try to summon me or pray to me to help them."

Legion shrugged. "You would have gotten along with Matty."

"He was a traitor. We used to hang traitors," Dee snarled. "Don't compare me with him."

Legion just nodded as he stepped through the brush.

Daxin was sitting on the edge of the creek, dressed in a shirt, pants, and heavy boots. He was scratching between Fido's ears and staring at the dark water slowly moving by.

"Come sit down," Daxin said without turning his head. "I could hear you coming from a hundred meters away."

"Not usually advisable to sneak up on a cybernetic wrecking machine," Dee said. She moved up and set the twelve-pack into the cold water, then sat down next to Daxin, digging out her cigarettes.

**HELLO NOT-MOMMY** Fido broadcast.

"Hello, sort-of-dog," Dee said. She lit a cigarette then patted the big cybernetic hound's back.

"You all right, Dax?" Legion asked, sitting down.

"Yeah," Daxin said, leaning forward and grabbing one of the nacrobrews. He twisted the top off and threw it into the brush across the creek.

"Litter much?" Dee asked through the cigarette smoke.

"It's biodegradable, not like all the rubbish your time left scattered across Earth," Daxin said.

"Huh, is it anything in particular you want to fight about or are your panties just in a twist so you're looking for something to fight about?" Dee asked, putting away the lighter and cigarettes.

Daxin glanced at Dee out of the corner of his eye, lifting one side of his upper lip.

"Cram it, Billy Idol," Dee said. "If you wanna fight," she gave a twist of her wrist and a long pointed knife dropped into her hand. "We can fight. It isn't like we both won't come back, so it's kind of useless, but if it's a whuppin' your a wantin', well then I'm your gurl."

Daxin took a swig off the narcobrew and glared at the water.

"Pfft, killjoy," Dee said, lifting her hand and letting the knife drop into her sleeve.

"Don't mind Dax," Legion said. He grabbed a beer himself and popped it open, looking at Daxin and shaking his head. "You know, it's this attitude that made me wonder if you were the one who killed Him."

Daxin frowned and turned to look at Legion. "What?"

Legion shrugged. "This. You throwing a hissy fit like you are now."

Dee stayed silent, her presence slightly withdrawing, like she was pulling herself inside of herself, as she watched with cold eyes.

"You thought I killed him?" Daxin asked.

Legion shrugged. "I come on Matthias standing there, over his dissolving code, a Lawgiver on the ground, and Matthias telling me that someone had just assassinated him."

"And you thought it was me?" Daxin asked.

Legion shrugged again. "Dax, I know you. I know why you stomped off, why you're sitting out here in the dark glaring at the fish and making your frowny face."

Daxin looked at the water and frowned. "You thought is was me."

Legion shrugged. "For about five seconds, then you stepped in, saw me, and Matthias pointed at me and said I did it."

"That changed your mind?" Daxin asked.

"I was too busy running to change my mind," Legion said. "The Imperium caught me less than a week later and took me to Crying Anne," he picked up a pebble and tossed it into the water. "I went in Vat Grown Luke, I came out as Legion."

"They caught me at my daughter's grave. Went in Daxin, came out Daxin. I didn't know Matty gave me up until after you and I got planet cracked," Daxin said. "After that, I stopped caring. I just wanted left alone."

Legion nodded.

"You really thought it could have been me?" Daxin asked.

"Dax, be honest. What's got your panties twisted up?" Legion asked.

Daxin stared at the water, taking a drink off the narcobrew. "It's beneath him. It... well... not to sound like Matty, but it isn't something that he should do."

Legion frowned. "He's just brushing and braiding their hair."

Daxin stared at the water. "You wouldn't understand."

"Then help me understand, Dax," Legion said.

Dee exhaled smoke and took a drink off the bottle while they sat silent for a moment.

"Because it's an intimate act," Dee suddenly said. She looked at Daxin. "In your eyes, he's being intimate with them."

Daxin nodded. "I knew girls, back when I was running the gang, back in the hab, that if you grabbed their crotch they'd laugh and push you away," he looked at Dee. "Touch their hair, they'd cut you deep."

Dee nodded. "As intimate as fixing your cybernetics, more so, even."

Daxin nodded then looked at Legion. "She gets it," he said. He looked back at Dee. "You wouldn't let a man touch your hair."

Dee smiled. "No, Daxin, I wouldn't, not unless I wanted that kind of intimacy."

Legion shrugged. "It's just hair."

Daxin shook his head. "No. For a man, it's just hair. For a woman, it's part of them. It's... it's... I can't explain it to you."

Dee looked around Daxin at Legion. "I'll let a man fuck me but I won't let him pull my hair. I'll let him sniff my four day worn panties before I'll let him sniff my hair. A guy who grabs my twat under my skirt on the subway is a pervert, a guy who touches my hair on the subway is far far worse."

Legion shook his head. "Like I said, I don't get it."

"Vat. Grown," Daxin said. He picked up a pebble from the sand of the creek bank and flicked it into the bushes.

"Guilty," Legion said, shrugging.

They sat quietly for a few minutes until Dee lit another cigarette.

"Daxin," she said softly.

"What?" Daxin asked, taking a drink off the nearly empty bottle.

"I let my father braid my hair when I was a child. It's one of my few good memories of him. The Great War shattered his mind, took a big bite out of his soul, but I still remember sitting in front of him while he sat in the chair and having him braid my hair," Dee said. She was staring at the woods as she took a deep drag off her cigarette. "I can remember, sitting in the sunlight streaming in through the window, as my mother sung in the kitchen, and he braided my hair before church."

She was silent for a moment.

"My wife kept her hair short," Daxin admitted. "I would brush and braid my daughter's hair when they were little."

"You call him 'Our Father' and 'Father', but then you wonder why Menhit and the others let him brush out and braid their hair," Dee said. She reached over and socked Daxin in the shoulder. "It's permissible for our fathers to brush and braid our hair, Daxin."

For a long while there was no sound but the buzzing of insects.

"It doesn't lessen him, doesn't contaminate him," Dee said softly, staring at the water. "You all say he is your father and so he does the tasks a father does."

"Sometimes I can't stand you," Daxin rumbled. "Like you'd let him touch your hair."

Dee chuckled. "I'm the Detainee. I'm different."

"Huh," Daxin grunted.

Dee stood up. "I'll leave you two to brood out here in the darkness. It's cold out here," she said.

Daxin and Legion sat silently, watching the creek move.

"Do you think they're still in there, Dhruv?" Daxin asked.

Legion nodded. "I know they are. I had their records. All three of them."

"What will they think of me?" Daxin said softly, staring at the water. "What will they think of all I have done?"

Legion shrugged. "I don't know, Dax." He put his arm around Daxin's shoulders. "Whatever happens, brother, I'm here with you."

"I just want left alone," Daxin said quietly. "If they are returned, if they will still want me with them, I want us left alone, the four of us, just left alone."

Legion just nodded.

--------------

"Figure we'll collect up the last ones tomorrow," Legion was saying as he and Daxin stepped from the brush and into the clearing where the fire was burning.

Both men stopped dead, staring.

Fido trotted up and laid down next to the bonfire.

Legion and Daxin both stared at where Dee was sitting, on the ground, her knees pulled up, her arms folded on her knees, her chin on her arms, and her eyes closed.

The Digital Omnimessiah held the thick wealth of Dee's black hair in his glittering hands, slowly crossing over the thick strands.

"And lo the Digital Omnimessiah sat, braiding the Detainee's hair," Legion said softly.

Daxin just frowned at him.