Ravens of Eternity

104 Fighting for Attention

After a lengthy family meeting, Eva and Miko met up to cool off. Mack had really dug himself in a hole while they weren’t looking. With everyone around, they were all able to pry the truth out of him – that he had been using opiates for a few months. All completely unchecked.

Even he had forgotten how many pills he was taking per day.

“I’m glad we got him before things got too deep,” said Eva.

Frustration was embedded in her tone. Miko nodded in agreement. But she couldn’t understand why Mack took the medication in the first place.

“Why did he have those opiates?” she asked. “Did he hurt himself? Or did someone else hurt him?”

“He never said,” Eva replied. “Just that too many things were eating away at him. Something about seeing something he shouldn’t have. He wouldn’t tell me.”

“Perhaps he will talk to someone else in the family.”

“Maybe he got way too stressed about the channel. And maybe I didn’t pay enough attention to him, you know? Maybe if I called more often and checked in, he wouldn’t have had to suffer.”

“I do not think you should be blaming yourself.”

.....

The two of them walked down the paths inside the compound and admired the beautiful scenery as they talked. The compound itself had a great deal of blue-green grass and all manner of exotic trees scattered everywhere. Combined with their ocean view, it was all too magnificent.

It felt a bit more like a vacation than a prison sentence, truth be told.

Although right now the place seemed more like a chaotic mess as people moved into the dorms. The Drogar assisted them in transporting their belongings from Tartarus to the compound, and so a number of metallic crates littered just outside of each dorm.

A number of people had cracked them open and started putting their things away.

“We oughta do better keeping contact,” said Eva. “Especially with our family. At some point they’re gonna be gone and it’ll be just us two. And we’re gonna wish we did better.”

Miko nodded. She too had a bit of difficulty keeping time. Her internal clock seemed frozen. Because she didn’t sleep or eat or do anything biological, her natural ability to tell the time disappeared along with those needs.

“I have created calendar reminders,” she said. “I will make sure to call once every week.”

“Yeah, good idea. That’s what, every two weeks for them? Little less?”

Eva created more calendar entries in her DI, which looked relatively empty, all things considered.

Not like prisoners were known to be busy bodies. In fact, their whole lives revolved around sitting around and thinking. At least, that was what society hoped they were doing, anyway.

“Do you think Mack will be alright?” asked Miko.

“Yeah. He just needs his rest. On the flip side of things – do you think your Mom is going to be okay? I mean, she’s gonna be taking care of the channels while he’s in rehab.”

“Truth be told, she will enjoy having something to do. And she will certainly enjoy translating again and writing subtitles.”

“You think we’ll get some good viewers in Japan?”

Miko looked at Eva with an eyebrow raised.

“What true Japanese does not like mecha? They even built an 18 meter replica of a beloved mecha in Yokohama.”

“Seriously?”

The two of them ultimately ended up at a small courtyard where a few dozen Federation service members were gathered. There were a number of the metallic crates nearby, which were filled with all of their exercise and recreational equipment.

They were planning to set up an area where they could work out and stay active, and had even gotten so far as to mark off different areas for the different equipment.

Some of the flat grassy areas were blocked off to be turned into sparring circles. Other sections were squared off to be used for weight lifting. Others still were set up for a couple different sports.

Eva realized how necessary these activities were. Everyone was fairly certain that things would take many months until all was resolved. Until then, they had to make the absolute best of it. And somehow make as little trouble as possible.

That was a tough ask for any human, especially rambunctious young pilots and clever little engineers.

Both Eva and Miko decided to help out – not like they didn’t have the time.

And of course, the group was overawed by the two of them the moment they stepped up. Many were fans of their show and dropped everything to go say hi.

Even those who weren’t fans were intrigued, but they were the rarity by and large.

Regardless, the two of them ended up with a throng of people around them. Eva and Miko blushed a little from the attention they got, but ultimately got over it as they all spoke.

“This is so crazy,” said one of the fans. “Never thought I’d end up as a prisoner alongside Freya and Raijin!”

“Hey,” said another, “the way you said that makes it sound like they’re the reason why we’re here!”

“Ah! I didn’t mean it like that!”

“You’d better apologize!”

“I’m sorry!”

“Not to me, idiot!”

“Don’t sweat it,” said Eva. “We got caught up in this whole damned mess, just like you guys.”

“Wellll, technically, my coordinate scramble did lead us to this planet,” Miko said.

One of the fans blinked when Miko uttered out what she had done. He wasn’t sure if he had heard it right.

“Wait. You actually hacked into the pirates’ navigation systems and scrambled them?”

“Of course,” Miko replied. “I did so at the same time Freya destroyed three fri-”

“Nevermind how we got here,” interjected Eva. “We’re stuck here now and gotta do what we gotta do in order to make it through, right? So let’s get our sweat on and put these kits together already!”

A group of them collectively agreed, and went to work putting the gear together alongside Eva. And of course, chatter about their participation in the big pirate fight began to spread as well.

As they began to work, one of the pilots off to the side nudged his buddy.

“Hey, come spar with me for a bit,” he said.

“What the hell? Why? I’m busy,” replied his buddy.

“You see who that is? That’s Freya.”

The buddy looked up from what he was doing and was utterly astounded by what he saw.

“Whoa, really? Wow... She’s gorgeous in person!”

“Yeah, so let’s get her attention and spar a bit.”

“Man, she kills pirates and bounty hunts for a living. She’s not gonna give two shits about idiots like us, unless we’re literally beating each other to death.”

A small voice suddenly came from behind them.

“What are the two of you talking about?” said Miko.

The two of them jumped up in surprise and spun around with their eyes wide as saucers.

“R-raijin!” they cried out in unison.

“Nothing!” said one of them. “We weren’t planning on showing off for Freya at all! At all!”

“Yeah, exactly that! I mean, exactly not that!”

Miko chuckled softly as she teased the two of them.

“It is alright if you are. After all, Freya indeed loves to fight. If you truly wish to impress her, you should ask to spar with her.”

“Really? Spar with Freya? You think we’d have a chance?”

“No. I am joking. She would destroy you without even looking.”

The two immediately flattened.

“However,” she continued, “she might enjoy teaching you how to spar.”

~

An hour later, Eva and her team had finished putting together a number of the exercise benches. It was made all the easier because she was able to move around most of the weights without a problem.

In fact, she had picked up the 20 kilo weight blocks with absolute ease and without so much as a grunt. She had even tossed a few around as though they were made of cardboard, which amused a great many, herself included.

Because she moved the gear that much quicker, everyone else was able to assemble the machines with little fuss. By the end, they had all worked up a good sweat and bonded together a little bit. They all needed the smiles, too.

The pilot and his buddy walked up to Eva, and they shook nervously with each step.

“Miss Freya,” said one of them, “Miss Raijin says we should ask you to teach us how to spar. So we were, um, hoping that you would, uh, you know... be okay with that.”

Eva suppressed the urge to laugh. The pilot’s awkwardness was rather cute.

But she had heard them talk earlier and was expecting them to come up to her. She honestly thought that Miko had suggested a great idea. It gave them all something to do while they were stuck in here.

She went back to her training on Mars, and recalled how she took on multiple cadets during hand to hand practice. Since they were now in a situation where they were less powerful than their captors, they needed to be able to defend themselves properly.

The only problem was that there were hundreds of pilots and engineers while there was only one her. Miko didn’t have the training or the desire to fight in close quarters in the first place. This meant Eva was the only one who had the ability to teach.

Or take the bruises.

“Hell yeah I’m okay with that!” she replied without hesitation.

Her exuberance nearly blew them away – was she really willing to teach them how to fight better?

.....

“In fact, we should get a few more people together to learn this stuff. How about six more for now?”

Eva quickly stood up and called out to the others around her.

“Hey, we’re gonna put together a sparring... circle... thing... And we’re looking for six more to join us. Who’s in?”

A frenzy swept across them all, and there was a sudden clamor as almost everyone around shot their hands in the air. A chorus of ‘me’ and ‘pick me’ erupted alongside.

“Hey, she can only take six more, put your hand down!” said one of them.

“Put your hand down! Mine was up first!” said another.

“I’ll fight you for your spot!” said a third.

“Come on then, I’ll fight you all!”

A group of them suddenly got extra rowdy, and threats of violence got thrown around a bit. Most of it wasn’t too serious, but it would have been all too easy to spin out of control.

“Wait, wait, wait!” yelled Eva. “Let’s all just take a breather – relax a second – chill. Didn’t think you’d all jump at the chance at punching each other, but okay, I can dig it. Um, how about we all get into little sparring clubs, then we can do some friendly team competition later, how’s that sound?”

And just as she finished saying those words, Eva realized what a terrible idea she had just uttered.