Welcome to Gaia! ::

Naeria hadn't been paying much attention at all to her surroundings. All of her focus was on a tiny sprout that was pushing its was up through a crack in the concrete of the sidewalk. It was so resilient, she thought.

She was going to have to take a lot of pictures so that she could show it to Andreyia and talk about how resilient Earth plants could be. She had her ComTech out, open to the camera app, and she was trying to find an angle where it would show in the dim lighting, when she heard a voice.

Someone was talking to her.

She whirled, her yellow eyes open wide.

He was wearing black, the way the Negaverse agents did. A moment later, her mind processed the words that he was saying. Fighting. He was talking about fighting. Was that a threat?

Was he threatening her?

Act fast, Andreyia had said, and he'd been promoted to Corporal. He knew what he was doing.

Naeria gasped, and then her blaster was in her hand, fast. Then she was pulling the trigger.

Naeria still didn't enjoy seeing the way that people winced after the bolts from her blaster hit them. Of course, she had registered for the Vanguard. That meant she would have to fight in certain situations, but there was still a twinge in her chest every time she shot someone.

Especially someone who put their hands up afterwards and seemed almost kind.

"I'm sorry," she said, quietly. She might have been a few inches taller than he was, but she didn't carry herself like that fact gave her much confidence. "That was reflex. Some humans have tried hurting me, so-"

She trailed off, blinking at him a few times while she looked at him. She still couldn't get past the skulls on his outfit. She couldn't tell if they were meant to be a symbol of death, a threat, or if they simply were there to show a love of nature.

She'd assumed the worst, but now he was apologizing.

"If I help you get stronger, what will you do?" she asked, after a moment. "I have seen some of your agents try to take starseeds and steal energy. I do not mind sparring but I cannot support that."

She knew the Commodore was trying to get them away from starseeds, but she did not know how successful he had been.

"I am not sure," said Naeria, which was the truth. She had her theories about what had happened that night they'd tried charging the weapon, and then how that had changed things afterwards, but she wasn't certain about how that had affected people's opinions of her. "I think there are complicated politics involved."

This was not about her, though. She listened to his story, blinking twice when he said that he had been recruited strictly to die in place of someone else. Hearing that did not raise her opinion of the Negaverse.

The tightness in her chest softened as she listened, though. This boy was trying. She did not think she had to be scared of him.

"I am not really a fighter either," she told him. "I am much better at research, and science, but I am also trying to learn some in case I have to protect myself and others."

Slowly, she smiled at him. "Show me how you fight."

Naeria did look over the curve of his weapon, trying to think of a way to hold it that help keep him from cutting himself. It reminded her somewhat of Velryia's scythe, but it was too small to hold in both hands like that.

Her analysis was interrupted when he began to sob. She blinked at him.

Oh no. She did not know how to deal with this. She did not know how to talk to humans anyway, and if this one was upset, but not upset in a way that was making him fight her, she did not know what to think or say at all. If it was one of her fellow Velencyans, she might have tried offering a hug, but it did not quite seem appropriate to hug someone who you had just shot.

"Don't fight, then," she said instead. "Don't hurt anyone. Your recruitment was forced and your treatment under the Negaverse sounds like it has been less than ethical. You do not owe them anything, especially if they make you feel worthless."

Her tone was even, bordering on flat, but she sat down cross-legged the way humans did sometimes when they were talking.

They killed people who could not or would not learn combat? Naeria could do little more than blink again. That seemed cruel, of course, but also inefficient. Did they really not know that people could have strengths in areas that did not involve direct combat?

Did they not know, as a simple, basic rule, that willing soldiers were more ethical and more productive than unwilling ones?

"Survive," she repeated, because she could not think of anything else to say for a moment there. Another few seconds passed before she added, "That is a good goal to have. It is one of mine as well. If you need help with it, I will see what I can do."

Although it turned out combat training with exotic Earth weapons was not something she could help with.

Especially when her mind was spinning with thoughts of just how flawed this military that Commodore Lyndin had allied himself with was.