The Technician's Fight, Draft 1, CH41

“How are you feeling?” the Psychologist asked once Gralgiran was seated.

“Better.”

The tilted ear told him she’d want more.

“Jer’s mostly back to his old self, and he resolved things with his friend.”

“The beta?”

He nodded.

“You said mostly back to his old self.”

“He has an alertness to his surroundings he didn’t have before, but it no longer takes all his attention. He can sometimes forget the hunt and relax. Those days are becoming more common. I don’t know if he’ll return to how he was before his first hunt, since being alert is something hunters need to survive, but at least he no longer considers himself on the hunt at all times.”

“And how do you feel about your actions while he was on his hunt?”

“I’ve accepted I didn’t do anything to him. I didn’t cause the ship he was on the be destroyed, just came close to it. I shouldn’t have let my emotions take over. It’s unbecoming of an Alpha, but I’m also only a male. The gods don’t ask me to be more than that. I made a mistake. They were kind and saw to it I didn’t lose him, my hunters and my friend because of it.”

“And regarding those promises?”

“I thought you didn’t pry during these sessions.”

She smiled. “Your worry about them is loud. I don’t consider it prying at that point.”

“Have to trust they won’t ask more than I can deliver. Which isn’t easy when nearly every ballad about one of us making a promise to one of them ends up costing more than expected.”

“Ballads do have a level of entertainment in them. We expect the gods to ask for a lot, so the ballads deliver. I doubt it wasn’t worth recording the times the gods only asked the one who made the promise to plant a tree.”

“But it creates an impression I have trouble shaking off.”

“You don’t think your service to them has earned you clemency?”

“My service is to two of them. I swore to make it right for all of them.”

“And already started for one.”

He smiled. Xenial Tal’halan’s consternation still amused him. Made being cordial tolerable.

“Aren’t you being unkind?”

“Now you’re prying.”

She shrugged.

“Probably. He’d made dealing with him difficult from the moment he became the Quartermaster. Jer thinks putting his position at risk is part of how he honors his namesake. I don’t bother with why he did it. Just the headaches he caused me. I keep expecting this to be a ploy, even if I also believe he is genuine in his desire to respect my promise.”

“What about Jer’s further training?”

He’d had to run that by her, since she was the only one on the ship with enough experience with his Heart’s mind to know if he’d react negatively to it. Interrogation resistance training was harsh by necessity.

“Every hunter receives it.”

“But not every hunter is your Heart. You understand he doesn’t think entirely the way we do.”

“He’ll understand.”

He had to hope he would.

*

“I can’t,” the beta before him said.

“You have the training. Your trainers reported that you have mastered training others. That tells me you can.”

The beta nodded. “I won’t, Alpha.”

Gralgiran considered the male. “You are refusing your Alpha’s orders?”

The male’s control cracked, and pain filled his eyes. “I can’t do that to him.”

“I was under the impression your feelings for my Heart wouldn’t get in the way of you being his beta.”

“I nearly destroyed our friendship by being his beta before his friend. He can’t separate the rank from the person the way we can. Even after we talked. It was weeks before he didn’t flinch when I touched him. I can’t put him through that again. I don’t think he would understand.” He closed his mouth on more.

“Speak, beta.”

“Tell him why. I know that we aren’t supposed to know it’s coming, even if we all know it’s something we have to go through, but he hasn’t grown up among us, with the ballads or the songs. Not understanding why you are putting him through it will hurt more than the training itself.”

He hadn’t considered that aspect, but he should have. Jer always prepared as best as he could for coming problems. When one’s scent caught him by surprise, he threw himself into researching it to compensate.

“Will you explain it to him?”

“Yes, Alpha.” Again, the beta closed his muzzle on something.

“Speak.”

“He’ll figure out quickly this is happening on the order of our Alpha.”

“You don’t think he’ll understand I have to?”

The beta squirmed.

Gralgiran massaged the top of his muzzle. “Just speak. Forget my rank and tell me what you think I’m missing.”

By the male’s expression, Gralgiran had asked for more than he should, but the Alpha could do that. He took a breath and straightened.

“You made decisions for Jer before.”

“I’m his Alpha.”

“Before that, Alpha. As his mate. Seeking to protect him, you decided for him how you would behave in your relationship.”

“This isn’t the same. I’m his Alpha, I have to…. But he has trouble separating rank from me. He might not be able to understand why I’m not the one explaining it to him.”

The beta nodded.

“Alright. I’ll select a different beta to oversee his training. You can go.”

*

Gralgiran watched his Heart work. Jer manipulated a holographic piece of tech Gralgiran didn’t think he’d understand even if it was explained to him. Under the motion, it expanded, and Jer removed a section, exposing components, wires, and items he didn’t know the names of. Jer took one out, set it aside, tapped a code and it shimmered away. Another code and it returned. Or, more likely, a variation appeared. He placed it in the projection, reattached the parts and shrunk it. He set it aside and tapped code in the air.

Gralgiran tapped a claw against the wall, and Jer looked over his shoulder. “You’re home early.”

“I have to talk to you. It’s about your coming training as a hunter.”

Another set of taps in the air and the projection ended. “I didn’t know I had any upcoming.”

Gralgiran escorted him to the lounge and sat facing him. “You shouldn’t be told. Part of its effectiveness comes from the hunter not knowing what’s happening. But your beta made a valid case that you will respond better to the whole if you understand why we’re putting you through it.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“I mentioned interrogation resistance a while back, didn’t I?”

After a hesitation, Jer nodded. “Something about how it makes it easier to resist mentalists.”

“Every hunter receives that training.”

“Meaning I will too. That’s the training you’re warning me about.” There was no dismissiveness in the tone. Jer understood that if he was being warned, there was a good reason.

“I won’t give you the details. I won’t tell you when it will happen. But I will tell you that it is harsh. You will be made to suffer.”

He saw his Heart’s mind work in his eyes. “You won’t tell me when or how, because you don’t want me to plan ahead. Why tell me I’ll suffer?”

“Because I hope you’ll understand this is needed. If you are captured by one of our enemies, they will use techniques you can’t imagine to extract the information they’re after. I can’t imagine what they’ll do. I can only go by what my packs specializing in it know, and what I’ve experienced.”

“You’re not talking about going through the same training,” Jer said, his expression growing horrified.

“I’ve been captured. I’ve been interrogated. I was rescued. I did not reveal the information they were after.” He kept it to those words to avoid bringing up details of the memory. It no longer affected him as it used to, but those had not been pleasant weeks.

“And you want me to go through that?” hint of dismay in his Heart’s voice.

Gralgiran shook his head. “You made it a requirement when you decided to become a hunter.”

“I could quit,” Jer stated.

“Yes, you can.”

He sighed. “I can’t. I’m not going to be able to stand aside if I can help with a problem, and you won’t let me help if I’m a civilian.”

“I can’t allow it.”

“You don’t want to explain to Helrarvnir how you let someone under your care be hurt.”

Gralgiran tilted an ear at the crude description, but since Jer didn’t have the context of his upbringing. The importance of his role as Alpha and barer of the Hunting God’s name. It was good enough.

“Make it happen soon. I don’t know how long I’m going to be able to resist looking into whatever you have on file about those trainings.”

He nodded. Not that he would have a say into how it happened, or that researching the techniques would help him prepare. Gralgiran had read about them. Every hunter did, thinking there was a way to plan and show they didn’t need such training.

He’d let his experts make all the relevant decisions. With the one order that the first session needed to be done two weeks before they reached the station. Jer would need time to get over what he had been put through, and Gralgiran wanted him rested to enjoy the station.

*

Gralgiran took a breath, and stepped onboard the ship attached to his. He pushed the thoughts of how small the corridor was away and forced himself to walk through it.

“How’s the scan looking?” Jer said from a further room.

“No idea what I’m looking at,” Hunter Builder Atarikna Drogdromar replied. “But it’s clear.”

“That’s a ZX-429 capacitor. It’s engraved at the bottom left. You can replace them with a four twenty-eight through five, but don’t make the mistake of using a ZY-429, those are rated completely different, they’re going to melt before you have anything like the power needed for propulsion to ignite.”

“I thought you were an anti-matter engineer,” she grumbled.

“I lost two reactor prototypes to techs who didn’t know the difference. Fortunately, that was before any of the scientists started making modifications, so my safeguards were intact and the anti-matter core was ejected before it overheated and the magnetic containment failed.”

“If I made its own capacitor, there would be no way a tech could put the wrong one there.”

Jer pulled himself out from the…. Gralgiran had no idea what it was. He didn’t even know what this part of the ship did. “Hey Gral. What do we owe the honor to? I’m going to have the scans done well before we reach the station, but I won’t be able to catalog even a fraction of the components. I’m familiar with most of those relating to power, but beyond that, the odds are that outside engineering, I won’t have encountered them.”

“The shift ended an hour ago. You can’t always work past that.”

“Sorry, just got pulled in,” his Heart replied bashfully.

Gralgiran nodded.

The beta in charge of interrogations had instructed him to put Jer in a position where he’d be comfortable, and to give him leeway to lose himself in it. To that end, he’d assigned the builder to help because she was Jer’s friend, and, like him, easily lost herself in tech work.

Every few days, Gralgiran came to fetch his Heart a few hours after the shift, and they studied his reaction. This was the first time Jer hadn’t furtively looked around. This wouldn’t be the only time his reaction was tested, and Gralgiran didn’t know who else the beta had involved. But this was a sign that the training would begin soon.

“You should have kept better track of the time,” he chastised them both. “I can’t have you overwork yourselves. Go home and live, builder Atarikna Drogdromar. Come on, Jer, you’re going to need a shower and then we’ll consider food.”

Jer snuggled against him as they exited the Earther ship, and Gralgiran shed his rank and enjoyed his Heart’s company.