I've been a slow song dancer

[arkbound]

Who: Dominic and Arran
Universe: Space Opera AU
What: First Contact
Warning: None

Lieutenant Dominic De Luca reckoned that he had three hours to either repair his crashed spaceship or destroy it so the people here wouldn't be influenced by the advanced technology it held. There wasn't time to panic about what had happened, to replay it in his head and think about how if he'd only reacted differently, that he wouldn't be in this situation. There was only time to do, to bury himself into the depths of the cable routing and figure out how he could reroute around the failed parts of his ship.

He'd been working on it for an hour and he still wasn't sure how he was going to get there when he heard the proximity alarm on his spacecraft go off. "No, no, no," he muttered, increasing in volume as he pulled back. It was too soon, this part of the continent was largely deserted, even if someone had seen him go down they shouldn't have been able to get here so quickly.

And yet here he was, and he was going to have to deal with this.

Comments

[hacklesup]

"Over here!" he called, unclipping his mask so that the sound would carry along the black volcanic crags. The Xanathor he rode hissed at the overloud noise, dorsal spines bristling, a clawed food scraping at the porous stone.

"Another one! You can see the smoke!"

His command had been scouring the region, first for a passable route for the rest of the army-- but throughout the night, comets small and large had crashed in the area, and together, they'd begun looking first as a curiosity...

.. and then to collect the strange, beautiful metals that had fallen, charred and scarred almost beyond recognition. Held up to the light, they'd rippled with layers and colors. With a shift of his legs and a clicking noise, he urged the scaled beast to crest the nearer boulders.

[arkbound]

Dominic's weapon was somewhere on the other side of his spaceship, a little further away than the shirt he'd shed while he worked on his spacecraft. He had a vibroknife in his boot (and a sharpened steel blade in the other because one could never be too careful) but he could hardly destruct his ship with that.

He could hear the distinct sound of voices, though, and Dominic drew the steel blade because maybe he could make crazed man with a weapon work for him.

"Stay back!" he shouted. He wasn't sure if it would be better if his translation functions were working or not.

[hacklesup]

"Hey, hey," called out Arran, holding up both gauntleted hands, leaning back so that the scaled beast drew up short, spines bristling. "We mean no trouble! Are you -- are you hurt? You must have been close by when the meteor fell!"

Beneath the unclipped mask, which hung loosely beside the side of his helm, his face was tanned, weathered and bearded. His teeth were white and even when he called out, and atop the hard-muscled, spined bipedal lizard, he cut a broad-shouldered, powerfully imposing figure.

[arkbound]

Dominic muttered a curse under his breath, his eyes wide where he took in the scaled beast and the man on top of it. He shifted his position, to stand between the stranger - the native - and the spacecraft, like he could shield its bulk from view.

He was banged up and bleeding from the crash, but nothing too serious. That wasn't any comfort to him right now.

"Dangerous," he said. "Not safe here." He made a shooing gesture with the hand not holding his knife. "Go."

[hacklesup]

"Don't you think I know it's not safe? The faults shift every few hours, and when the volcano's lit at the mouth, poison fog rolls down these crags."

He swung down with a creak of the leather harness of the beast, which shook itself gladly, and turned its long face to nose around the rocks to chase a smaller lizard that hard darted through its crannies. Arran, though, approached the other man with hands up.

"You look injured," he offered, quietly, "We have a camp past the base of the crags, we can help you--"

[arkbound]

The situation was untenable. Dominic was a fool to have let himself get into it, and to not have done the proper scans, to not have known that there would be people here soon.

"I'm fine." The knife shifted in his hand, a warning not to get closer.

There was nothing to be done now except to blow up his ship, probably himself with it. First he had to convince this man to leave him alone with it. Unfortunately he wasn't exactly at his most eloquent right now. Exhausted, stressed, and facing a situation he'd never particularly wanted to find himself in. "Leave me, I'm fine," he repeated.

[hacklesup]

Arran went no closer; but his voice was pitched gently, and he beckoned Dominic to him. His leathers creaked with the movement.

"You're bleeding. You're shaking. I'm no fool, don't lie to me. But let me give you water, at least...?"

[arkbound]

He was wasting time. More people could find his ship while he stood here, talking to a man who'd be better off without Dominic's interference in his life.

But the man was right, Dominic knew. It turned out there was a difference between knowing what to do and the reality of it all, having to take action in the moment. He gritted his teeth, tried to focus.

"How many others are close by?"

[hacklesup]

"Six, about. We were collecting metal from the fallen stars. Some of it looks like proper steel-- like nothing I'd ever seen. A gift from the gods." He gestured to the craft behind Dominic.

"Perhaps they're at war, too."

[arkbound]

"No." Dominic took a step towards Arran. Was the gravity of this world heavier, or was he just more tired than he'd thought? "You can't, you have to leave it, or give it to me." He swallowed. "The gods will be angry with you."

He felt ridiculous saying it, a terrible fraud. But maybe it would work, maybe he hadn't already done too much damage to clean up. It wasn't the people of this world the Covenant would be angry with, but none of that really mattered. It was pure damage control here, and Dominic felt as banged up as his ship.

"You can't," he started and then promptly passed out.

[hacklesup]

Arran, eyes wide, rushed forward to catch the slackening figure before his head could make contact with the volcanic rock below. "Shit, shit, shit!"

He only barely made it in time, scrabbling at the stranger's unfamiliar clothes-- and with a low grunt, began to haul him up, slinging him over a shoulder. The effort left him puffing, and he sagged to lean against the unfamiliar metal thing the man had been standing before. It looked like-- a carriage almost, if terribly strange. But another shockwave through the ground that sent cracks fissuring through the volcanic stone under their feet.

With an urgent call, he summoned his mount, which came almost grudgingly, talons clicking on the stone, nosing around the rubble for more prey. It hardly seemed to notice when Arran lay the body over its back, securing it with a few spare leather straps.

"Easy, girl," he murmured, "Easy, easy. Back to camp-- thank the Moon it's not very far..."

He took up the reins of its complex halter, and set out at a jog, heading down the crags. His hand replaced the mask of his helm, latching it into place, its snarling face catching the smoke-thinned light strangely.

---

Some hours later, a careful hand was supporting the back of Dominic's head, while the other balanced a dish of water, trying to filter it past Dominic's cracked lips.

[arkbound]

Dominic came to roughly and feeling terrifically disoriented. It took him a moment to think through even vaguely where he could be, and in that time he shifted, eyes scanning frantically for some sign of familiar ground.

When he remembered the crash and the result he let his eyes slide shut for a moment, seeking strength he wasn't sure he could muster. How much longer until he could get back to his ship? Was the damage already done?

He opened his mouth to speak, considered, and accepted some of the water first. He licked his lips before he tried again. "How long have I been out?"

[hacklesup]

"Better part of a day," rumbled Arran. "It's night now."

"Drink, just a little more," he urged. "You're pretty dehydrated. And I have some food for you, when you think you're ready."

[arkbound]

"Shit," Dominic muttered, but he reached out for the water to drink more while he tried to think through the possibilities. There didn't seem to be many. And he was so tired.

"I appreciate your hospitality," he said, "But you've done plenty already." The more contact they had the more complicated this potentially could turn.

[hacklesup]

"It's hardly hospitality. You were... you were in trouble. I'd have wanted someone to do the same if.... if it were me." Arran demurred, leaning back, sitting cross-legged beside the other man.

But his dark eyes were grave, his brows drawn tightly together.

"Just... take it easy, for now. We've already sent off to the main army, to see about getting enough beasts to carry you with us."

[arkbound]

Dominic shook his head, the situation drawing back an urgency that cast his exhaustion to the side. He couldn't let this situation get even worse.

"When will they get here? I have to go back, before then." His ship... He had to take care of that problem. Better off if this man didn't waste things on him he didn't need.

There was absolutely no time to take anything easy.

[hacklesup]

"Trust me, stranger, you don't want to go back," rumbled the bigger man. "This is all volcanic rock, sediment just hardened over a shelf of... of molten rock. Mages are coming to agitate the mountain. All of this is going to be gone, in a day or two."

His mouth slanted, his apology soft-voiced and earnest.

"I'm sorry."

[arkbound]

Dominic's expression was steady, and he felt a wave of sudden relief.

"G-gone?"

He could only hope it was true. If he was the only loose end, then this situation would be a lot easier to manage. Although he had to consider that his ship might survive the environmental factors.

"How long will it be unsafe in this region?"

[hacklesup]

"How long? Always, I expect. But in two days, it's going to be a reliable imitation to the underworld."

He shook his head. "I wouldn't hold out any hopes of coming back to find anything the same."

[arkbound]

Dominic took a breath and let some of the nervous tension drain from him.

One thought left him, but it was only to be replaced by another. "You've put yourself in danger in order to aid me." It shouldn't matter, the micro level of civilizations unsophisticated enough to not have space travel shouldn't matter at all. But this man had been kind to him, and Dominic didn't know how to ignore that.

The truth was that the man had seen Dominic's ship, might have learned more from searching Dominic while he was unconscious. The Covenant would think it best if they both did perish.

"You can go on without me, now."

[hacklesup]

The bigger man blinked, quizzically, head slowly tilting to a perplexed angle. He stared at Dominic for a long moment.

"I... beg your pardon? What do you mean, go on without you?"

[arkbound]

Dominic's brow furrowed as he tried to think back through the specifics of the conversation, to draw back to what had made that seem a reasonable answer.

"You said you had to send for another horse? You needn't wait for that if you don't take me with. I'll be fine." It was even potentially true, as fine as Dominic could be stranded on this world that he knew absolutely nothing about.

[hacklesup]

"Not a horse, stranger. Horses will get burned by the heat comin' off the stone, be lamed. No fodder for 'em, either. You'll ride a xanathor."

He paused, watching Dominic.

"You should tell the others that yours perished, somehow. Just like horses, men can't survive long over this patch of land either. The heat bakes you, and there's no water. And you didn't have a pack..."

He lifted his brows, a little.

[arkbound]

"I lost my pack when my xanathor perished," Dominic said. He stumbled over the unfamiliar word and was very obviously making the entire thing up as he went, and not particularly well.

The others would likely ask all sorts of things that this man so far had not, like where Dominic had come from and who he was. He hardly knew this world well enough to answer those sorts of questions.

"It's a pity I hit my head in the same accident and can't remember anything about how I got there." Dominic's tone was dry enough to hint at amusement underneath it.

[hacklesup]

It surprised a laugh out of Arran, and he shook his head a little, lifting his brows at the other man.

"Long trip, to come out all this way. Did your beast have a name? Did you rent it from a village nearby? What brought you to this dangerous place?"

The questions came slow, leading. His eyes searched the other man's features.

[arkbound]

A laugh wasn't really what Dominic had been expecting, and it startled a half smile out of him. The smile disappeared as soon as Dominic realized it had happened, but a hint of pleasure still lurked around the corners of his eyes.

"Unfortunately I don't even remember my own name, let alone all of that," Dominic said. "I'm fortunate you came along when you did." He wasn't sure that that was true, but what was another falsehood on top of all the rest?

[hacklesup]

"If you don't remember your name, we'll need something to call you," informed Arran thoughtfully, refilling water in the cup still in his hand, and drinking from it, letting his other hand wick sweat away from his brow.

"Shall I think of something for you? Or....?"

[arkbound]

Dominic looked around, as if to search out inspiration. But the whole point of not giving his name was that he had no idea what a native name here would be.

The idea of giving up on his name still made him hesitate, for reasons that Dominic knew were irrational. He did his best to shove them aside. "Please, if you don't mind. I'm not sure I'll ever make up my mind if I try to pick something for myself."