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keaalu · 1 month ago

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Kestrel Kestrel, chapter three

“No, Tiger. Still nothing, I’m afraid.”

After a little heated discussion – why do you even want to take it back with us? Just because we’re called TerraHAWKS doesn’t mean any of us know the first thing about looking after an actual bird! – I know that, Mary; I just got a feeling, all right? She needs someone to take care of her for a little while until we figure out who’s lost her, she’s not gonna survive on her own out here – Mary had finally relented. So now Kate sat quietly on a ledge at the back of Battlehawk’s bridge, and watched Mary report back to Doctor Ninestein at Hawknest. She might be back among friends, but until she could get them to recognise her, it didn’t feel like that much of a step up from the desert.

“You’re on your way back already?” the Terrahawks’ gruff commander challenged.

“Yes – we humans are, anyway. We’ve left Sergeant Major Zero in charge of the ground search, but I’m not sure what else we can do, out there? Hawkeye already found her clothing, so it’s clear something bad has happened – but there was nothing else. Not even footprints.” Mary took a stabilising deep breath and a second to compose herself. “I think she’s been abducted, Tiger.”

“Hmm.” Ninestein sounded dubious. “We’ve not seen any sign of Zelda since Spacehawk saw her ZEAF off yesterday.”

“Well the martians aren’t our only enemies,” Mary reminded. “There’s plenty of humans who would be happy if we went away forever. And that’s just our enemies – Kate’s a big enough star that she has fans with the potential to do irrational things like kidnap their favourite artist. But… I think it’s too unlikely for Zelda not to be involved, here.”

“Not disagreeing, but you haven’t sold me on the abduction theory, yet.”

“I’m scared that Zelda’s learned a new trick, and the ZEAF was just a distraction. We know she reclaims her own. What if she’s figured out how to claim those who aren’t, as well? Kate’s clothing was empty – like she was teleported straight out from inside it.”

“Don’t you think that’s a bit of a leap, Mary?” Ninestein cautioned. “Why would she take Kate, and not her clothing? Granted they’re androids, and don’t always get biological behaviour, but I’m pretty sure they understand clothes, seeing as they wear them as well.”

“Well, I agree! But we can’t explain it any other way! She couldn’t have undressed and left her clothing in the state we found it – everything was all tangled up inside everything else…”

Kate listened quietly and wished she could figure out even the smallest clue to give them. No, she hadn’t teleported out of her clothes. She’d just… shrunken, and crawled on out of them, instead. Like that was so much more logical and obvious.

I’m right here, guys!

She wanted to wave (well, flap) and get his attention – look! See? Here I am! – but would that even help? It’d definitely alarm Mary. It had taken several minutes of eloquent persuasion from Hawkeye before the captain had even been willing to consider taking the tiny falcon aboard, and Kate didn’t want to make her any more uneasy than she already obviously was. (To be fair to her colleague, having what they all thought was a potentially-unpredictable semi-wild bird sitting unrestrained at the back of the flight deck? Yeah; she’d have probably been uneasy about it too.)

Out of the front viewscreen, Kate occasionally caught a glimpse of her bright vermillion runabout, expertly piloted by Hawkeye. The irony wasn’t lost on her; even though she suddenly had actual wings of her own, these didn’t even get her off the ground right now, whereas she usually flew the minijet as easily as breathing… and now wasn’t even allowed aboard it.

55 was the only zeroid returning with them. He sat on Zero’s perch, looking strangely despondent – tilted slightly forwards, shutters half-closed, mouth lit in its downturned display. “I’m sorry, Captain Falconer,” he said, quietly, once she’d ended her call. “Maybe I had no way of knowing, but I really should have tried harder to stop her going.”

Mary glanced briefly back over her shoulder. “It wasn’t your fault, Five-five. Short of shooting her, how precisely would you have stopped her?”

“I should still have tried,” he protested, but quickly lapsed into silence again.

Kate wished she could have comforted him. This is way bigger than you coulda saved me from, little guy. Best you could have done is tell them I was a bird, now. And would anyone have believed you, or just decided you were confused and broken?

The rest of the journey home was uneventful, although Mary kept casting anxious glances in Kate’s direction, to reassure herself that the strangely polite, patient little bird was still being polite and patient – and still sitting in the back, and not adventuring off around the ducting.

Hawkeye beat them back by some margin, and arrived to collect Kate from the bridge before Mary had even unbuckled her harness. “Our li’l guest behave herself?”

Kate resisted the urge to try and roll her eyes at him. Even as he reached towards her, she dropped to the deck with an ungainly flutter and hop-skipped it past his feet. If I just show you I know where I’m going…

“Whoa, hey there. I don’t think you should be running around here on your own.” Hawkeye grabbed her awkwardly with both hands and scooped her up off the deck – although her feathers yielded and slipped under his palms and he immediately almost dropped her again. “Oh, yikes! A hand here, Mary? She’s smaller than I thought, under there-!”

With Mary’s help, he managed to get the unwilling kestrel balanced on his forearm again, and the little group retired to the lounge.

Hawkeye first offered Kate the floor, but she clung stubbornly to his uniform and stared hard at the unoccupied zeroid perch next to the piano, instead. After next trying the coffeetable, and then the ordinary table, after a little confused muttering eventually the human figured out her wavelength and let her step across onto the tall electronic column, instead. In spite of all the sockets and connectors on its surface, meaning she had to be very careful where she put her claws, it was a little further from the ground and let her stay closer to her normal eyeline, rather than feel like she was sitting on the floor. Kate decided she’d take any small comforts where she could find them, right now.

Plus, it was next to her piano. Hope swelled in her chest. She couldn’t sing but maybe she could play? Her legs were a lot longer than they looked, and she might just about be able to reach far enough to play something basic. They definitely couldn’t mistake that for anything else! Now, how to get down there…

Her friends had all got back to work, apparently needing something to divert all that anxious energy into. Over at the main table, Mary had pulled over the communications console and opened a conference call with Zero and Spacehawk’s crew. After a little perfunctory squabbling between the two command zeroids, everyone settled remarkably quickly and got back to work. Hawkeye busied himself with doing some sort of research.

Kate managed a short, frustrated sigh. She had to be able to tell them to stop wasting their time searching for her when she was right here, and please focus on helping her get her real body back, instead!

Okay. She ruffled her feathers. Here goes nothing.

She measured her aim, plucked up her courage, and jumped down onto the piano keyboard.

She was rewarded with an unmusical jangle of protest from it, and her feet skidded on the slick keys, almost pitching her straight off the edge. She heard alarmed noises and movement from the table and knew she needed to move fast. After a second or two of frantic flapping for balance, she recovered.

Right, good. Now – music!

She reached one long leg out for the note she wanted-

And-… spacefire and damnation! She was too light to depress the keys! She screeched an involuntary protest and stomped her frustration at it. (That made a noise, infuriatingly.) Her talons skidded over the polished surfaces.

“Hey, hey, careful there little bird.” Hawkeye hastily scooped her up off the keys. “I’m not sure Katie would like you walking around on there, you might scratch it. I’d hate for you to get those little toes caught in something, either.”

He set her back down… on a different perch, closer to the table and away from the piano. “There we go. Bit safer over here, huh?”

She wanted to cry with frustration, but the noise that bubbled up out of her throat instead was the shrill, shuddering screech of a small hawk – sharp and unexpected, it startled everyone, and even made Kate herself jump. In the background, on the video call, she heard Zero asking; “What’s that noise, ma’am? …Ma’am? Are you safe? Is everything back there all right?”

Mary visibly gave herself a little shake. “It’s fine, sergeant major. Just another little mystery we’re trying to solve.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Thank you for all your hard work, everyone. Zero, have your men finish the new search grid, and we’ll come and pick you up tomorrow when it’s light. Hiro, let me know the instant any of your crew turn up anything.” A little collection of ten-ten-s responded before she switched off the monitor and let her arms dangle with a long tired sigh.

Okay. Kate gave herself a shake as well, feathers all fluffing up without conscious control. It took effort to slick them all back down. Okay. Breathe. New tactic. Try again.

She looked round the room and spotted a photograph of her human self on the opposing wall – but she couldn’t get to it. Yet. She tried calling to them and pointing at it, but her wings wouldn’t quite bend the way she wanted them to, and they assumed that her screeches meant she was unhappy. (Well, she was, but not for the reason they thought.) So she was going to have to fly over to it, somehow.

She spent a little time flapping, awkwardly, but couldn’t quite figure out how she was meant to use her new wings to generate lift. (Asking her friends for some videos would have to wait until it was no longer quite so far beyond her capabilities.) Perhaps she just needed stronger muscles? And more exercise. She sent dust whirling with her efforts.

“Do you think she’s in pain?” Hawkeye wondered, propping his head on his hand as he watched her. “She’s pretty fidgety, but I haven’t seen her fly even once.”

Mary looked over as well. “Maybe that’s why she was abandoned out there.”

Kate ignored them and studied the table. Hawkeye had left his tablet unattended.

…his tablet with a keyboard! That might work! She could write something! But how was she meant to get to it? Tabletop and perch were separated by a metre or so; a veritable chasm, for a little bird, but she could jump that. Surely she could jump that-!

Just as she gathered herself to make her leap, the door opened, and admitted Ninestein, with a tray of coffees.

Which he put down on the table right where Kate had been planning on landing.

Then Hawkeye picked the tablet back up anyway. “Hey, boss.”

And everything suddenly felt inordinately heavy.

She really had run out of ideas, now. Kate fluffed herself out and tucked her head down to her shoulders, quietly depressed. Bad enough she was trapped like this, but to be unable to communicate? To be treated as an actual genuine kestrel? How long before she ended up in the ‘care’ of a zoo?

Ninestein quietly took in the scene – his exhausted colleagues still hard at work – before noticing the bigger oddity. “Why do we have a little bird in the lounge?”

Hawkeye looked up from his research and for a second or two just stared blearily at his commander, before wiping his face with one hand. “She decided she wanted to come with us.”

“She decided? The bird?”

“Yup. I couldn’t get her to shoo so I guessed she was a pet? I didn’t want her getting hurt or starving so…” Hawkeye shrugged. “I figured she was hungry. I’m trying to work out what to give her, before I put something up on social, see if I can’t find out who she belongs to. Or who might be able to take her in.” He waved the tablet. “And the biggest irony? Get this: she’s a kestrel. And not even an American one!”

Ninestein gave him a look. “You’re telling me you brought back the wrong kind of kestrel.”

Hawkeye offered another tired shrug and took refuge in his drink. “Thanks for this.”

“Hm.” Ninestein leaned closer to see Mary’s computer. “And what are you doing, precisely?”

“I’d been working with Zero on a new search strategy.” Mary wrapped both hands around her mug and sipped at the hot liquid inside, allowing herself the luxury of a few seconds of enjoyment. “If Kate’s not been abducted, I wondered if she’d gone towards the cliffs, looking for shade or water, and maybe slipped or fell or… I don’t know. Something. But the zeroids have worked over almost everywhere in thirty square miles and we’ve exhausted where we can look. We’re going to have to get imaginative. Or wait on a ransom demand.”

“Still caught on the whole abduction idea, huh. What’s your thoughts on that, Hawkeye?”

“It makes sense but I’m struggling with it. We would have definitely seen some footprints away from the scene.” Hawkeye stretched and rubbed the back of his neck. “But she’s gotta be somewhere, Tiger. We know she was sick. People undress when they get too cold, right? I wondered if maybe the same was true of heatstroke?”

“I’m not sure we can extrapolate like that,” Mary cautioned, with a little wave of a finger.

“Hell, I’m not sure we can do anything, right now!”

Ninestein turned to look over at their kestrel. “And what about the bird?”

“Hawkeye was trying to work out how to feed her. Or more specifically, what.” Mary gave Ninestein a loaded glance. “Seeing as we have a freezer full of lobster claws, not baby chicks.”

Ninestein put his hands up. “I hope I’m not getting the blame here for not buying birdfood for the bird we didn’t have an hour ago.”

Mary made a little sort of apologetic noise and went back to her drink.

“So. This is a kestrel?” Ninestein challenged, walking closer. “You’re sure?”

Hawkeye nodded, just once. “Yup.”

Ninestein stood with his arms folded and stared at the scruffy little bird for a very long time; she looked back at him, fluffed up like an exhausted duster, bright yellow eyelids pulled halfway closed. “You only found Kate’s clothes?” he asked, at last. “And no footprints?”

Hawkeye rested his elbow on the table and propped his cheek against his palm, exhausted. “Uh-huh. Looked like she’d just evaporated clean out of them.” He twirled a hand in the air.

“Maybe she did. Well, maybe not evaporate, precisely, but…”

Hawkeye’s brow furrowed. “…huh?”

Mary also turned to look at him. “What do you mean?”

Ninestein didn’t look back at either of them. “Have any of you tried to speak to her?”

Mary and Hawkeye exchanged glances.

“To… the… bird?” Hawkeye asked, warily. “Well… no? Why would I? I mean, I guess I talked at her a little, but I kinda wasn’t expecting an answer?”

“What are you getting at, Tiger?”

“We all know Zelda can control matter, when it suits her. So what if… I wonder. Now… bear with me here, all right? I might look like I’ve gone crazy, but if this works… well, you’ll see.” Ninestein walked quietly over to the small bird, and crouched in front of it. “Kate?”

…the tiny falcon leapt into the air with a triumphant but useless beat of her wings, and promptly fell off the perch. Ninestein cursed, alarmed, made a scrambling lunge, and somehow managed to catch her before she hit the tiles.

“I guess that’s Zelda’s idea of peak humour; turning Kate Kestrel into an actual kestrel,” he said, plopping clumsily down to sit on the floor with a relieved little bird sprawled out over his palms.

Hawkeye just stared at him, open-mouthed, before working out where his voice had gone. “The hell did you figure that out-… fuck me. That’s Kate?”

“Lucky guess. I wasn’t honestly expecting a reaction but I figured I needed to at least test it?” Ninestein kept his palms cupped beneath her and tried gently to nudge Kate back upright, but she was having none of it, wings spread, legs stretched out behind her. “And… yeah, I guess it is? Good job she convinced you to being her back with you, huh.” He looked up and caught Mary’s eye. “A little help here, maybe?”

Mary had already found a towel, which she now wrapped around her arm. “So she doesn’t need to worry if she grabs on,” she explained, gathering her friend up from Ninestein’s hands. Her own fingers were still trembling very slightly. “This doesn’t feel real, you know.”

“Right.” He remained on the floor for several more seconds, watching as Mary straightened up and let Kate get her balance on her arm. “I imagine Kate probably feels the same way.”

“But how could this be-…” Mary shook her head. “This is-… scientifically impossible. Are we sure we aren’t having some… collective hallucination? Zelda drugged us all with a plant before.”

“That’s as may be, but we can’t just sit around until we wake up.” He took Mary’s free hand and let her pull him back to his feet. “We have to assume it isn’t, and deal with it.”

“What do we do now?”

“Damned if I know. I’m going to at least tell Hiro to stand his crew down, and then…” He threw his hands up. “I don’t know. I guess see if he’s got any genius ideas.” The door whooshed closed behind him.

Mary sat with a bump back at the table, feeling like her knees weren’t all that keen on supporting her right now.

Kate relaxed against her, leaning in against Mary’s upper arm. She still felt tired and sore and sick, but infinitely better now her friends finally knew it was her. Thank the stars for Doctor Ninestein.

“I’m so sorry. You’ve been trying to tell us the entire time.” Mary used a single finger to stroke the back of Kate’s head, gently. “I promise we’ll figure this out, Kate. You just relax, for now. We’ve got you.”

Relax. We’ve got you. The words felt a little bit like a candle, showing her the first steps out of the dark. Kate hadn’t realised quite how much tension she’d been carrying, but now she suddenly felt unfairly heavy. Exhausted. Her treacherous toes automatically snagged closed on Mary’s towel-wrapped arm, but she still wobbled dramatically as she succumbed to a doze.

Mary cupped a hand gently over her back, keeping her from falling. “Did you get much further with finding out about food, Hawkeye?” she wondered, quietly. “She’s got to be hungry, by now.”

“For actual birds, sure.” Hawkeye sighed. “Birds of prey are meant to have whole animals, like they’d eat in the wild. Like… bones and fur and shit. So they can digest it properly.” He rested his head on his hands. “I mean, fucking hell, Mary. I’m not gonna subject Katie to that. Even raw chicken is pushing acceptability further than I’m gonna consider.”

“You didn’t find anything else? What about what we eat?”

“People don’t feed birds of prey with people food. I get the feeling it’s frowned on to feed little birds on cooked hamburger?” Hawkeye manged a terse smile. “Most of what we have in storage is ready prepared.”

“Maybe we’ll just have to try it. She can’t survive on nothing.” Mary glanced down and watched her friend sleep, briefly. “It won’t be for long, anyway. We’ll make sure of that.”

While Mary and Hawkeye had been taking charge of the new situation, Ninestein contacted Spacehawk.

“Hiro? You can stand down the search. We’ve found her.”

“Oh!�� On the screen, Hiro sagged against the terminal in relief. “Thank goodness. How is she? Where was she?”

“Right by her ship, when we picked her up-”

“But- How is that possible?” Hiro straightened and glanced back at 101, who had rocked slightly back on his axis in the same sort of alarm as Hiro was feeling. “How on Earth could we have missed her?!”

“…well, that bring me nicely onto my second point. First of all, she’s healthy, so far as we can tell-”

“So far as you can tell?” Hiro echoed, baffled. “How can you not know?”

Ninestein sighed, tightly. “I’m going to just come out and say it, Hiro. It will sound completely absurd and you’ll think I’m playing a practical joke on you, but…” He ran a hand through his hair. “Somehow, Zelda has turned Kate into a kestrel.”

Hiro just stared at him for several seconds. Finally he found his voice again, and said, succinctly: “…what?”

“A little falcon?”

“I-I know what a kestrel is. But- - I’m not certain I heard you correctly.”

“No, no. You heard me just fine, Hiro.”

“And are you sure-”

“Yes.”

“Do you know how?”

“No. Not even the faintest idea. Although to be fair, I haven’t actually tried asking her.” Ninestein matched stares with the shocked expressions at the other end of the connection. “I was hoping that maybe you’d take a look and give me your opinion.”

Hiro shook his head. “I am not a biologist, doctor. I don’t know how much help I will be.”

“Honestly, Hiro? I don’t think there was much biology going on here anyway. There’s no earthly processes that I know of that could turn a human into a bird. It’s gotta be some sort of… magical handwavium at work, courtesy of our friend Zelda. The sooner we can work out what it is, the sooner we can fight back against it.”

“Let me prepare Treehawk and I will be down-”

“Ah – no. I thought it would be better if we met in orbit. Just in case we need to take… certain precautions.”

“You mean, in case it is contagious and we need to quarantine.” Hiro visibly exhaled through a little oh of pursed lips, and took a second or two to centre himself. “I understand. Then we will await your arrival.”

Kate didn’t sleep very long, but woke feeling refreshed, if rather… disoriented. Now where was she?

Oh, yeah.

Bird.

She sagged back against Mary’s arm and wondered if she could just get back to sleep. It all made more sense when it was all just a dream.

The dilemma of eating still hadn’t been resolved, but Hawkeye had fetched a bowl of water for her, so she could at least try to slake her thirst somewhat.

Huh. A bowl of water. Not a glass. She tried to rationalise it as how it made sense, as she no longer had lips, and not that they were unconsciously treating her like a pet cat.

Turned out that even drinking was not very easy. She had to scoop a little up in her beak, then tip her head back so it trickled down her throat. It made her cough. She ended up with more water on her feathers than in her crop, but it got easier with a little practice and eventually she felt vaguely satisfied.

If drinking was this difficult, however hard was it going to be to eat? At least there was very little risk they’d think a mouse was a good food choice, now they weren’t assuming she was an actual kestrel.

Well, okay, fine, she was an actual kestrel, but-… never mind.

Mary explained that Ninestein was going to take her up to Spacehawk, to see if they could work out what was going on. That lifted her spirits a little. If anyone could figure this out? It would probably be Hiro.

Determined to make her own way to the shuttle bay, Kate ignored Mary’s proffered arm and fluttered down to the floor. Still hadn’t quite worked out how to generate lift, but she didn’t just go straight down any more. Another of those small comforts. Her hop-skip along the corridors felt a little lighter than it had previously.

55 was waiting outside Treehawk’s hangar. He looked a little puzzled to see who was approaching, but otherwise sat quietly to watch their approach.

“Ah, Five-five,” Mary greeted. “Doctor Ninestein asked you to accompany Kate, did he?”

“Yes, but I haven’t seen her. Do you know where?” 55 did a full rotation and a half before Mary managed to regain his attention. “But I’m so glad you found her! I wasn’t aware!”

“Oh.” Mary crouched next to him. “In all the fuss, we forgot to tell you. I’m so sorry. Five-five… This is Kate.”

Kate hopped up close and gave a wary little bow, wings slightly spread. She still hadn’t quite got over how strange it was seeing zeroids on this scale. The little robots were bigger than she was, now, and felt… slightly clumsily intimidating? Of course she knew they were (mostly) excellent drivers, but it was hard to convince herself of that now that they could potentially squash her.

55 stared for several seconds, tilted slightly to one side like a dog with a cocked head. “I don’t understand.”

“Zelda has… somehow… transformed her into a bird. So you did actually find her, when you were out in the desert, after all.”

55 continued to stare at her, but his posture had changed, rocked slightly back on his axis. “Oh, Miss Kate!” He sounded horrified. “I hadn’t realised it was you! I’m so sorry-”

She bumped him with her beak, gently, and he went quiet midsentence.

“We didn’t realise either, Five-five,” Mary reassured, resting a hand against his top curve. “You aren’t to blame for somehow not recognising her, when none of us did either.”

He leaned against her leg and made a glum noise.

Space Sergeant 101 was at his perch on the flight deck, waiting to greet them when Treehawk finally arrived. “Welcome aboard!”

Ninestein offered a tight smile and let Kate step off his arm and onto the central control console. “Thanks, 101. Is Hiro in the lab already?”

“Yes, sir; he’s been making preparations since you said you were coming up here.”

“Good. I’m going to see how he’s getting on. Look after Kate, will you?” Ninestein looked down at the zeroid doctor shadowing his feet. “Come on, Kiljoy…”

“Ten-ten, si-ooh, yikes. Miss Kate?” 101 rocked back on his axis, and stayed like it for a handful of heartbeats before coming forwards again, as though leaning closer, conspiratorially. “Did you do something with your hair, ma’am?”

She gave him an affectionately scolding swat with a wing, but was already relaxing. If there was one person she could rely on not to make a big deal, it was the little robot who was used to being on the wrong end of it himself.

“I thought they were joking, to wind Hiro and me up for not finding you. But.” He cocked to one side. “Here you are, huh.” Another heartbeat passed. “Captain Falconer messaged to say you still haven’t eaten. Can I get you something?”

Kate shifted her weight uneasily from one foot to another, and clicked her beak.

“Oh. Oh, right. Er. Hmm.”

101’s optics scrolled as he hastily did some research. Not mice, not mice, she willed him.

“We have some shredded chicken in the cold store. Mary says kestrels aren’t meant to eat cooked meat but Hawkeye couldn’t find anything that says it’s specifically harmful so we guess that would probably be okay just this once?”

She breathed a sigh of relief and nodded.

“You stay here. I’ll go fetch it!”

She watched him tumble off his perch and vanish out the door. Certain other zeroids might joke he was more secretary than soldier, but that felt like it was precisely what she needed, right now; not to mention, someone with just the tiniest trace of social awareness.

55 leaped up to the console, and rolled over, protectively. “I’m so glad we found you, Miss Kate. I was so worried. When I just found your wig, I didn’t know what to think.” He spoke quietly and leaned guiltily closer. “I did a bad job. I’m sorry. I promise I’ll do better.”

She could tell when 55 was particularly stressed because he stopped rhyming. She leaned carefully against him and offered a little crooning noise of comfort. He sat very still to avoid crushing his considerable weight into her, but she sensed he probably wanted to ‘snuggle’, in as much as zeroids could.

They sat quietly together until 101 returned, pushing a little trolley with Kate’s… breakfast? Supper? She’d lost track of what time it even was, any more. She opened her wings and dropped carefully down to the deck. Spacehawk’s artificial gravity felt particularly weird, right now.

Compared to how big she was now, it was an enormous pile of food. The pale shreds of cooked meat didn’t look particularly appetising, but if the alternatives were either go hungry or whole mouse, she decided that boring shredded chicken was absolutely perfect.

Now, how to actually eat it? She studied the plate for a very long time before attempting anything, and quickly discovered she was going to have to hold the shreds somehow, if she didn’t want to have to chase them across the plate with her beak. She balanced on one leg and tried to use her other foot to hold them where she wanted, without a terrible degree of success. Ultimately, she found she had to stand right there on the plate itself.

Lucky she had a coat of feathers, now. So they couldn’t see quite how hot she was burning with humiliation of struggling to feed herself.

The two zeroids watched her for only a second or two before 101 butted into 55 to get his attention.

“Does it not get tiring, making everything rhyme?” he asked. “I can only imagine what it does to your processor load.”

“I don’t rhyme all the time,” 55 demurred. “Some sentences are just too short, and it’s better to keep to a single retort.”

“Right! How would you even say ‘yes’?”

55 gave him a funny look. “Ten-ten?”

“Oh! Duh. Silly me.” 101 bumped against him and the pair fell about giggling.

Kate couldn’t get her beak to smile, and couldn’t quite figure out if her new voice would allow her to laugh, but it was good to see the zeroids interacting as fairly normal individuals, for a change. And while they were chattering with each other, they weren’t studying her quite so intensely while she tried to swallow the lumps of chicken without the benefit of teeth to chew them. (She suspected that was the sole reason 101 had struck up conversation, and 55 had gone along with it. And they actually appeared to be enjoying each other’s company, which was an even better change.)

It might have just been bland unseasoned chicken, and might have required far more emotional labour than eating had ever normally taken, but getting that little bit of food inside her felt like it had stoked the fires of her flagging confidence.

Right. It’s all coming together. You can do this, Kate.

So when Ninestein returned to collect her, she felt a little more able to cope with whatever the world was about to throw at her. Or at least, so she hoped.

Kate perched on the bench in the medical lab, awkwardly, and made a little questioning noise.

Hiro smiled, but there was tension in his eyes. “We would like to take some samples, if that’s all right? And do some diagnostic tests. We hope they might help us work out what exactly Zelda did to you.”

The lieutenant explained everything as they went: skin, blood, saliva samples. A couple of feathers (those were the worst). X-ray. Ultrasounds. Hiro expressed some disappointment about the lack of MRI and PET facilities aboard, after which Kate mostly lost track of what he was doing.

Eventually he and Kiljoy were satisfied, and allowed her to escape. No matter how careful and gentle they’d been, Kate still felt like she was leaving half her body in the lab.

While the humans discussed things with Kiljoy, in low anxious tones, two worried little zeroids decided they needed to get back to looking after her. 55 had finally realised that all the flapping was nothing to do with being in pain, but trying to figure out how to fly. He and 101 hunted out plenty of videos, and she instructed them on which she wanted to watch. (The touchscreen was only responsive to the pads under her toes, not her beak or her feathers, and she wasn’t quite dexterous enough to reach everything she wanted, yet.)

Her first actual flight down the length of the flight deck – actual flight, oh man – was short and ended in a crash, thankfully cushioned by her feathers and Spacehawk’s weird gravity. But it was undeniably flying! Flying! She couldn’t do anything except dance for five whole minutes afterwards, a whirl of bright toes and feathers. Her two self-appointed guardians tried to join in but they were clumsy little idiots and spent more time trying not to crash into each other. Kate couldn’t help laughing, a soft musical little trilling noise – it made her absurdly pleased to discover that she was still capable of that, too.

Finally flying under her own power lit a fire in her. She wanted to go further. Faster. She knew where the cargo bays were – and they were much bigger than the flight deck. Even to a human, they were big. To a small bird, it’d be like flying through an aircraft hangar-

Kate sprinted off into the corridor with the two zeroids in hot pursuit.

Swooping down the full cavernous length of the hold, cheered on by her two excited little friends, it almost, almost let her forget what had been done to her.

This is incredible. It’s incredible. It’s better than incredible.

And to think these were still only her first clumsy attempts! She still wasn’t very elegant – or good at turning, or even stopping, for that matter – but her heart soared. She thought that perhaps she could cope with this part of this whole sorry situation.

Now just imagine doing this on Earth, where there’s no walls, or risk of being sucked out into space…!

It didn’t her take very long to exhaust her new muscles, but she would have happily stayed up there for the rest of the day. She flopped against 55 and panted to catch her breath, throat fluttering.

He chirped softly at her, questioningly.

It took some imaginative charades to finally get across the concept of I’m thirsty, but they finally got onto her wavelength.

“The galley is this way!” 101 sang, leading her towards a small door in the wall, before adding; “It’s a shortcut.” His tone of voice implied he’d have been tapping his nose if he’d had one.

55 followed gamely on behind them.

It was strange, seeing Spacehawk from a zeroid’s point of view. Kate hadn’t realised quite what a maze of maintenance tubes the big vessel actually was – easily navigable by the little robots (and kestrels, now), but perhaps less so by a human, who would probably be forced to wriggle through on their stomach.

“Oh,” said 55, abruptly.

101 stopped dead and turned to face him. “‘Oh’?” he echoed. “What does that mean?”

“It means, oh I think something’s happening.” 55 was watching Kate very intensely. “But not to worry! So long as we get back to the lab. And maybe hurry?!”

Kate felt her breath catch. What the hell did all that mean? She gave a soft little crooning note of question.

“Your heart rate is back up,” 55 explained, bluntly. “Only a tick… but like last time. When you first got sick.”

She stiffened. Whatever process it was had turned her into a bird was reversing? Was that too much to hope?

She brought a wing forwards and noticed a feather had come loose. Then she coughed – a weird little squeaky sneeze noise that felt like it came all the way up from the bottom of her chest.

“Okay, let’s go let’s go!” Alarmed, 101 took the lead, racing off down the maintenance tube. “The lab is this way!”

Clinging to the hope that she was indeed turning human again, and not into something worse, like a slug or a slime mould, Kate chased after him in a sort of hop-skip sprint, wings slightly spread for balance, leaving a trail of loose feathers behind her, 55 following protectively along at the back. Her feet had already started to ache.

Her hope was tempered by the knowledge that she had to get out of the maintenance tubes before she got stuck! It embarrassed her just to think about it; turning human again while still in these narrow passages, getting stuck in the depths of the spaceship, needing the place to be dismantled from around her – buck naked the whole time? She put on a little extra burst of speed, squeaking at 101 to go faster.

The lab was empty when they came crashing out through the zeroidoor, not a moment too soon. Kate’s shrill, screechy kestrel voice had already given way to something a lot more obviously mammalian, horrible deepening groans of pain, and all her large flight feathers had fallen out. She stumbled out into the open space in the centre on all fours, considerably larger than she had been five minutes previously and getting bigger with every second.

She tried to swallow her screams but it felt rather like her skeleton was on fire. She could almost hear the bones of her wingtip creaking, shattering back into individual fingers.

“I’ll get help!” 55 was already speeding for the door.

“Why are you leaving me here?!” 101 squeaked after him, alarmed. “She’s your human! That is, no offence Miss Kestrel-!”

“You’re in charge of the ship, you can keep the doors closed. She’ll appreciate it if she ends up unclothed!”

101 wailed after him: “But I’m not a doctor!”

“Me either!” 55 was already far away down the access tube, and quickly vanished around a corner.

“Oh, help.” 101 leaped for the controls and aggressively plugged into the system; the door thumped closed. “Don’t worry, miss Kate. It’ll all be fine! I’m sure it’ll all be just fine.”

Kate clung to his words, using them as an anchor as she tried desperately not to pass out, propped on knees and elbows and clutching her head as her skull reshaped itself. It was only her empty stomach that was keeping her from vomiting.

It had to almost be over now, surely. She groaned into another shuddering sob.

Please be almost over-

“What’s going on in there?” Ninestein’s voice came very clearly through the door. “What are you little idiots playing at now.”

“Don’t come in!” 101 squeaked, alarmed. “Is Kiljoy with you? Miss Kestrel is um, is not exactly a kestrel any more! And she doesn’t have any clothes, right now! Oh, help. Please get her some clothes!”

Curled up and trembling on the cold deck, it was taking every ounce of Kate’s willpower not to black out again. It was hard to tell over all the noise echoing in her head, but it felt like perhaps the worst of the pain had begun to subside.

She opened her eyes a crack and flinched from the white brilliance of the overhead lights. The world came back into a sort of hazy focus, as though she’d suddenly downgraded her eyes to a bad quality television monitor. 101 was right in the doorway, defensively, plumbed into the system and manually keeping it locked – plus making himself something good for tripping over if anyone managed to overrule him. On the other side, Ninestein was trying to persuade him to open the door; sounded like even Kiljoy wasn’t able to override the sergeant’s control, for once.

“-I’m not letting you in until someone gets some clothes!”

“You’re being ridiculous. We need to check she’s all right-!”

Out of breath and aching all over, she couldn’t quite help the snap – wheezing like she had the worst case of laryngitis in her life. “Will you guys just listen to him and get me some damn clothes? Mercy!” She felt a little like a human pretzel, twisted up into a defensive knot of limbs in an effort to protect her modesty – not to mention, try and keep warm in the chilly room. Sitting naked in the lab on Spacehawk was not how she’d expected her day to pan out.

“Owun?” Hiro’s gentle voice filtered through the hubbub. “We’re still waiting for her clothes to come off the printer. But I have a blanket. Will that suffice for now?”

101 turned just enough that he could catch her in the periphery of his visual field; Kate gave him a brief nod.

“A blanket is fine!” he chirped, and opened the door a tiny crack.

A hand holding a big bolt of soft fabric appeared through it, and dropped it on his head.

The blanket landed with a flump and promptly unfolded, completely covering him and spilling out over the floor; Kate could hear him muttering frustratedly, but after a second or so cross referencing to get his bearings, he rolled it over to her, like a cartoon mole under the fabric.

“I have my eyes closed,” 101 reassured, muffled.

Kate released an arm from the knot of limbs and picked up the tail of the fabric, manoeuvring it around her shoulders.

Oh. The blanket was warm and soft and felt amazing. She wrapped it all the way up over her head, leaving just a tiny window to peek out through. “Okay, hon. I’m decent,” she told 101. “Well. Decent enough. You can let them back in.”

There was a subtle clonk she felt through the deck, and then the door hissed back, almost throwing Ninestein down on the floor from where he’d apparently been leaning on it.

The doctor gestured his annoyance. “Do you think next time you could maybe not lock us out, where we can’t help? I mean… flaming thunderbolts. What if something terrible had happened?”

101 looked defiantly up at him but miraculously remained silent.

55 rolled up very close and pressed against her side. “Miss Kestrel?”

She leaned against him, tired. “Hey, little bodyguard. It’s nice to be able to talk properly to you again.”

“I really hope you’re not in pain, and I’m so glad you’re you again!”

“Me too, buddy. Thank you for looking after me.”

Hiro finally appeared a few minutes later, and crouched in front of her with his arms full of clothing. “Fresh off the printer,” he said, relinquishing the bundle into her hands.

Kate studied it. It was the right colour, but was definitely not her uniform. “This Kiljoy’s way of saying I’m not signed off as fit for duty?”

She meant it mostly as a joke – there was no way she was even thinking about going back on duty just yet – but Hiro ducked his head with a guilty smile anyway. “Forgive me – that was my idea. I did not want you to feel you had to throw yourself straight back into work. Perhaps I should have picked a completely different colour-”

She put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s fine, Hiro. I was teasing. These look perfect. Thank you.”

He covered her fingers with his own. “When you are dressed, Kiljoy would like to assess you. Just to check you are fully you again. Is that all right?”

The idea of being poked and prodded some more, however well intentioned, left her cold. “D’you think he could wait until I’ve taken a nap? I feel like I haven’t slept in a week.” She tried to hide the yawn in the blanket. “Actually, I’m not giving him any choice in the matter. I’m sleeping whether he says I can or not. Would you let him know?”

Hiro nodded. “Of course. We have plenty to be working on.”

Ninestein smiled, tiredly. “Well, since there’s not a lot more I can do just yet, I guess I’ll go check out the ents library. See if 101 actually has anything decent to watch hidden away among all his soaps.”

“Huh!” the zeroid retorted, sniffily.

Not anticipating a crew rotation, and with no time to prepare for the possibility of quarantine, none of the other cabins were ready, so Hiro volunteered his own. It was crisp and neatly organised, bed made, everything tidily in its proper places – with every spare surface (apart from the zeroid perch close to the head of the small bunk) occupied by a potted plant. It felt a little like she imagined is would to take a nap in a forest.

Kate looked down at 55, and patted the pedestal. “Would you stand guard, while I get some sleep?”

Her zeroid looked puzzled but obediently hopped up to the perch’s control surface. “Why, ma’am? I don’t think you’re in danger. We’re aboard Spacehawk, and no-one here’s a stranger.”

“I know. I just think I’d sleep better knowing I had you keeping a sensor or two on me.” She patted his head. “Wake me up if you notice anything strange happening, huh?”

He bumped against her fingers. “Ten-ten, ma’am.”

Kate curled up under the sheets, wondering how long she’d end up laying awake for. That bone-deep ache still permeated her whole body and exhausted though she was, she wasn’t sure if she’d actually manage to doze off.

But 55 was running his fans just enough to be audible, and the lullaby of white noise helped soothe her into sleep.

----

This would have been finished earlier except I got distracted by looking for the Klingon for "open fire!" for a certain little round asshole who is getting WAY too into a particular rescue mission. (Don't ask.)

#terrahawks #zeroids #kate kestrel #space sgt 101 #55 #lieutenant hiro #tiger ninestein #mary falconer #lieutenant hawkeye #fiction

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