It's All About That Base

Posted on Thu Oct 15th, 2015 @ 11:52pm by Commander Dae Nalas & Jackson Banning V & Commander Oralia Zeferino & Ignatius Reilly

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: Oz & Jackson's Quarters

* Oz & Jazkson’s Quarters *

“...wait, Kahuna, named for our Admiral --”

The Big Kahuna, Iggy confirmed.

“-- has already learned how to curse --”

Home run, you ass!, Kahuna cried.

“-- from the new Dean of the Academy?” Oralia looked at the four spiders arrayed in front and around her. Iggy was on the couch with her; Kahuna had taken a spot on the arm of a chair next to her; Ariadne and Gilroy, Jr., were on the coffee table. Oz grabbed her mug of hot chocolate as Ariadne edged closer to it; the spider had already tasted Oz’s first mug of chocolate and found she liked the sweetness. Oralia was finding that having four spiders who talked was far, far, far worse than having emergency surgery on a barren planet with no medical supplies.

Both were painful.

“I’m going to have to have a talk with this Dean,” Oz mused.

Indeed, but I should be there, too, as mother of the child. I now understand how you must have felt when the Big Kahuna taught me to use such language. And got me drunk! Oh, that was great fun but the lesson is inappropriate for one so young. At least I was four years old by the time I learned what asshat means, Iggy huffed.

Oralia had turned slightly to look at Iggy during her minor tirade and now she suddenly started laughing. Her laughter started off slow but built till she was crying from laughing so hard.

Is she okay?, Kahuna asked.

I do not know, actually. Usually when she laughs it is a good thing. But I do not know what has tickled her funny bone, Iggy answered.

Bipeds have funny bones?, Ariadne piped up.

It is a figure of speech. You will hear those often, Iggy said, loving the chance to teach her children something.

Wiping her eyes, Oz shook her head. “Oh gods. This is surreal.” She saw that Ariadne had chocolate on her pedipalp. “Oh, come on! Don’t put your hairy... appendage in my cocoa! Yuck, you used that to hold a cockroach earlier!” She picked up the mug and took it to the recycler before requesting yet another mug of hot chocolate as well as a small saucer of the stuff. As she brought it back to the table, the door opened. “Hey babe,” she greeted Jackson casually.

“Heya darlin’,” Jackson answered. He stopped by the sofa and began to untie his bow tie. “I see all the..uh...grandkids are here.” He grinned at Oz, then looked at the spiders. “Evenin’ gang. Good ta see ya.”

“Oh, gods...,” Oz turned a horrified look on Jackson. “Grandkids? I hadn’t... I hadn’t thought of them that way yet. My mother is going to have a fit, if she hasn’t already.”

Too late!, chirped Iggy. She saw them in Sciences and your father had to fan her face to keep her from passing gas.

“What?” Oz peered at Iggy before quirking a brow at Jackson. “Passing gas?” Snorting, she burst into laughter again and held her side. “Oh... it hurts to laugh that hard.”

Jackson shook his head and settled down on the other side of Oz from Iggy. “I swear I don’t wanna know, really.” He looked at the three younglings. “Right handsome brood there Iggs. I heard from Leto that one of ‘em’s a baseball fan?”

That is Kahuna. He sat with Louie, the Academy Dean. He also learned other things he should not have learned, Iggy informed Jackson, moving onto Oralia’s lap to wave a leg at him.

Jackson chuckled at that. “Such as?” He looked at Oz then. “Haven’t we had this conversation before about the Admiral?”

“Yes, we have,” Oz said. “His offense was worse: he gave Iggy a whole list of words. At least Kahuna, so far, only has a couple of bad words. A-S-S is one--”

Ass! That was a home run!

“-- and baseball sayings are the other thing he’s learned. He asked me if I’ve gotten to second base. I told him that I was pretty sure I’d hit a home run later tonight. Feeling athletic, J?” Oz smiled at her husband over her mug of cocoa.

Jackson laughed uproariously. “I think I like that kid,” he answered. “What about the other two here? Eli was tellin’ me that the pink and green one spoke first. Ariadne?” He spotted her by the dish of cocoa. “Sweet tooth I see. She gets that from you Oz.”

Yes. Ariadne is the largest and she talked first. I am surprised Kahuna, the male, spoke before Gilroy did. But I do not think that that is a sign that Kahuna is intelligent.

“Iggy!” Oz hissed at her. “Don’t say things like that in front of the kids. You’ll give Kahuna a complex!”

What’s a complex? Kahuna asked. Louie said that about Leto too….that she was complex.

“Um... complex is a ...complex word...,” Oz cringed. “Louie probably meant that Leto is complicated, not easily understood. A complex, as I meant it, refers to a...,” she glanced at Jackson. “Tomorrow, I’m finding a nanny for them who can teach them this shit -- oh! damn!” She slapped a hand over her mouth.

Shit, Kahuna repeated. Got it. Maybe I’ll teach that one to Louie at the game tomorrow night so he won’t bang on the table when someone messes up.

Jackson nudged Oz. “That’s two now...no three but no one repeated d--”

Gilroy spoke up, Damn! Each of the spiders had a slightly different tone and tenor to their mental voice. Gilroy’s was huskier than the other two.

“Oh great,” Oz shook her head. “Perhaps, J, we should go hit that home run now and call it a night?”

We can watch. It will be their first lesson in biped relations, Iggy said.

“Oh hell no!” Jackson was adamant. “No audience Iggy.” He looked at Oz. “Where do these kiddos live anyway?”

“With us. Where else would they live? Ops set up three new terrariums in Iggy’s room while you were gone. Oh, sorry, I forgot to tell you about that.” She leaned over and kissed him.

“No big thing. Kahuna mentioned bein’ down with Louie, I take it they’ve been out visitin’ the past few days?” He gently moved Iggy off the sofa and to the coffee table, then snuggled Oz in close.

“They have. Chance and Eli have been parading them around. Gilroy, Jr. spent the night with Reva Madhava, Desta and Riley Sukotav. She doesn’t seem any worse for that interaction. Ariadne and Kahuna went around the Promenade with Iggy. We got in twenty panicked messages about strange creatures wandering around.” Oralia brushed a bit of hair off of Jackson’s brow. “I do love you, J. And I missed you while you were gone.”

“No more’n I missed you. It was a long haul and an interestin’ one. I have no idea yet if Enara’s gonna do anything. I don’t see how they can without revealin’ some things they really don’t want to see the light of day.” He leaned in and kissed her gently, to a chorus of cheers from the spiderlings.

Score! Kahuna shouted.

“Okay... no audience. C’mon, guys,” Oz got up and scooped up Kahuna and Gilroy in one hand each. “Time for you to be in bed, little ones. Iggs, come tell them a bedtime story,” Oz called as she settled the two in separate terrariums, all to a chorus of disappointed ‘awws’ from the spiders.

Jackson rose and carried Ariadne over to her terrarium. Once she was in he watched her for a moment until the terminal beeped.

“Should I get that or just ignore whoever it is?”

Passing Iggy on her way out of the spiders’ room, Oz made sure not to step on her. “Ugh... it might be my mother. Let me get it,” Oz made sure her robe was covering her appropriately then answered the comm. “Oz here.” She didn’t see that Iggy turned to follow her.

“Hello Oz, sorry to call so late.” Dae rubbed his eyes briefly. “I’m calling because I need you to take a little trip with Nico and I.”

“A trip?” Oz shook her head. “I can send Gilroy or Darw..., no, not Darwin, he’s undercover on the planet. Gilroy, Carter... Ganesh?”

Dae shook his head. “I’m requesting you specifically. General Thompson has been sending reports from his reconnaissance runs. They’ve been spreading farther out, given the Valhalla team is taking up residence. There’s a report here that I want you to see. One second.” He looked down as he tapped his console. “Okay sent. I don’t know that it’s time for a big alarm, but I want to take a run out and see if there’s anything to it.”

Oz held her tongue till after she scanned the short report. Rubbing her eyes much as Dae had a moment ago, she cursed quietly. “This is not good,” she wanted to argue, though, that she didn’t need to go along - she could send a minion. But Dae was requesting her; refusal to go would be an insult. “How soon do we leave?”

“Tomorrow morning, if you can manage it?” Dae asked. “We’re taking Nico and Patrick Smith. His ship will be faster than a shuttle. Hopefully we can make a quick job of this.”

Her relief that it wouldn’t be a shuttle was palpable. “Okay, tomorrow morning, then. I’ll meet you at Patrick’s ship.” Behind her, Iggy hurried back into her room.

“Good enough. I know this is short notice and that report’s even shorter but we’ll have time to hash out the details en route. Thanks, Oz. See you in the morning.” The channel closed.

Behind her Jackson spoke up. “What’s the emergency?”

“Dae asked for me to go with him to check something out. Shouldn’t take more than a week, out and back,” she said. “We leave in the morning. So... home run, first? And then I need to send some messages out to Gilroy and some others.” Smiling, she eased into his arms.

“Us first, then messages. Do you want to farm out the grandkids since you’ll be gone and I’m not here all that much?” He asked. “If so I’ll take care of that tomorrow.”

“Yeah, Chance and Eli should be able to take care of them,” Oz agreed. “For now,” she kissed him, “Let’s tend to us.”

Jackson tilted her head back and his kiss was long and deep. “Always us first,” he whispered.

Moments after their bedroom door closed, they heard a triumphant crow in their thoughts.

Batter up! Bases loaded! He scores!

***************
Commander Oralia Zeferino
Ignatius J. Reilly-Zeferino
Jackson Banning V
Lt. Commander Dae Nalas

Ariadne
Kahuna
Gilroy, Jr.
The Gangly-Legged Gang