Orbital Academy 20

"Both of our great peoples wish for peace." Jane began, trying to ignore the weight of responsibility that had just been placed on her shoulders. "Whatever our agreement entails, I think we can agree that 'no violence between our peoples' should be included."

"A King can promise a flock, but the shepherd must deliver it." Tess replied after a small pause. "Is the truce to be broken and the royals shamed if some lowly Terran or Orbitan decides to throw a cantrip?"

*"That's a low-level spell, about the impact of a punch in the face."* Tess mentally clarified. Jane was grateful for the information, but her mind was racing. Of course it was true that the whole species shouldn't be held responsible for one person's actions, but she had the sneaking suspicion that if they left that loophole, the Terrans would take advantage of it.

"Only a Terran knows how a Terran suffers, and only an Orbitan can know an Orbitan's pain." Jane tried to adopt the Terrans' lyrical form of speech. "If an Orbitan gives harm to a Terran, then they should be given to Terran judges for punishment. If a Terran raises a fist to an Orbitan, then Orbitans will punish them." Jane didn't know anything about Terran justice, but she was pretty sure the threat of it would be enough to keep angry Orbitans from attacking Terrans. Who knew, maybe the Terrans had enough scary bedtime stories about Orbitans to keep them in check as well.

"Chief Kathryn is grumbling over here; we might have trouble in cases of violence where there's no proof of who started things. Still, it's a good start." Hunter said in her ear.

"The royals of Terra Forma wish to keep their trees and the land they have taken through conquest." Tess said.

"We expected that." Hunter said. "They have a foothold here for the first time, they're hardly going to be giving it up. Give it to them."

"The Orbitans wouldn't dream of harming the lands of the Terrans," Jane said carefully, "just as I'm sure the Terrans would not think of extending the forest to impugn upon the Orbital's land." Tess nodded minutely, and Jane noticed that behind her the woman with purple hair frowned. So she had guessed that plan right; if it hadn't been a part of the treaty the Terrans would've seen no problem with extending the cover of their trees into the core itself. Even after the treaty was decided, Jane realized, they would have to keep a close eye on the Terrans' activities.

"Of course," she added, "that's not to say that this harsh separation is necessary, now. When our people are at peace, the Terrans can naturally come and go as they please in the halls of the Orbitans."

"Ehm, I'm not too sure about that-" General Hunter began in her ear, but she continued as if she didn't hear him.

"Just as Orbitans should be allowed to travel into the forest that you have built."

"Ah. Hmm. I suppose that helps us more than it does them then. We can keep an eye on them with the cameras when they're in the core, but they can't watch us if we want to do some espionage. That's acceptable." Hunter said, almost approvingly.

While General Hunter might've found it acceptable, the Terrans clearly did not. There were frowns on all of their faces now, even the small Drake's eyes were narrowed in reptilian disapproval. Jane frowned in return. If this was the only area that displeased them, chances were there were loopholes in the other parts of the deal, but she couldn't spot them.

"The great leaders of Terra Forma accept these terms." Tess said formally. "Are there any others?" Jane furrowed her brow trying to think of what she'd missed. It was all too sudden, too simple, too anticlimactic to be really happening. A peace between Terrans and Orbitans was far too monumental to be solved so easily.

Of course, Jane realized, it hadn't been solved, not really. As soon as General Hunter felt they were strong enough, they would attack the Terrans with everything they had, especially if they could get ships in and out and thus had the support of the other Orbitals. It wasn't much of a stretch to imagine that the Terrans were planning something similar.

*This isn't a peace-treaty truce, it's a temporary ceasefire isn't it?* Jane thought, realizing only in the last instant that by phrasing it as a question in her mind she had probably given Tess access to it.

*"But it's better than war."* Tess nodded.

"No violence towards each other, no advancing territory. We get our heat dispersal, and they get to sleep free of our terrible lightswitch powers." General Hunter seemed to be thinking aloud in her ear. "I don't like the idea of letting Terrans inside the core, but I'm sure they don't like the thought of us tramping through their forests either, and believe me, tramp we will. I can stomach this a lot more now that they're just as scared of us as we are of them." Glancing from face to stony face, Jane wasn't quite sure of that, but it wasn't her call to make.

"This truce is agreeable to General Hunter." She declared. It felt as if there should be some fanfare, or perhaps a horrible ambush or trap sprung, but that was simply that. The two Terrans and the Drakeling inclined their heads, and Tess and her "brother" bowed much deeper.

*So that's it? We're at peace now?*

*"One last warning, Captain. We're bringing more and more of ours up here. Jia, the girl who is in the Drake, is escorting them from the surface, and I think your other Exi- Orbitan Moons have written you off as dead, because they aren't stopping them. We've got twice the Terrans here than the original boarding party, from all three tribes. In the interest of being both a Terran and an Exile, I thought you should know."* Tess' thoughts were hesitant, but Jane blinked.

They hadn't known the Drakes had people inside them, although a Drakeling acting as ambassador for the Blue tribe suddenly made a lot more sense. More importantly, General Hunter would want to know about the steadily increasing number of his enemies.

Jane wasn't expecting for the shields to drop behind her, but the Terrans apparently were. She braced herself for the sound of gunfire, to be shredded by the crossfire as the soldiers followed Kathryn's orders and responded to the trap, but the seconds ticked by without violence. Jane glanced behind her, taking in the state of the soldiers; tense, wary, in some cases frightened, but none of them surprised. Blue must've given them the all clear. The Orbitans and Terrans were at peace.

Jane didn't feel very safe or peaceful. She turned her back on the Terrans and walked towards the door that would lead into the Orbitans' core, expecting the scorching heat of a spell to slam into her back at any moment. This wasn't over, there was no way it had been so simple. The door was only a room's length away from her, but it felt like an eternity to walk it.

*This isn't over, there's something we missed, this isn't real peace.* The words spun through her head, but she reached the door unharmed. When she looked back, most of the Terrans had already slipped away into the forest. Tess was standing a few feet away from the edge, and when she saw the Captain looking she gave a small wave before she followed them, the giant Drake lumbering along at her side.

***

"I don't like the way the Terran guards look at us, Blue." Jane leaned over the security screen, stabbing a finger at the image on it.

"They're not guards Captain." Blue's tone was one of exaggerated patience. "They're just normal Terrans who like keeping the edges of their forest neat and trimmed."

"And who just happen to be there every day?" Jane crossed her arms and watched the two Terrans, as the small team of Orbitan engineers entered the forest, making for the edge of the Orbital to work on the heat vent that had been their project for the past week. The engineers didn't notice one of the Terran "gardeners" breaking off from his project to tail them, and it left a prickling sensation on the back of Jane's arms to watch them walk out of the camera's view.

"Captain Appet!" Blue barked, and Jane jumped. "The engineers went and returned yesterday. They went and returned the day before that. General Hunter went and met with them the day before that, and if they really wanted to cripple us they would've done better to kill the General than to kill a handful of engineers. They will be fine."

"Blue, I'm telling you that this so-called 'peace' isn't going to last." Jane muttered. Now that she wasn't keeping tabs on the Terran guards she shifted restlessly.

"There are precious few on this Orbital naive enough to believe it will Captain." Blue replied.

"Then how can everyone be so calm about it? How am I the only one paying attention?" Jane balled her fists.

"Oh, pardon me, I forgot you were the one with cameras in every room and the multi-processing ability to mentally parse them all." Blue said wryly. "Maybe most of them just realize what you can't seem to wrap your head around; this peace isn't going to last."

"I literally just said that."

"But apparently you don't 'get' it, because instead of getting your bearings, getting sleep, taking stock, and honing your abilities for when war DOES break out again, you're running yourself ragged trying to keep track of things that have already been handled."

Jane opened her mouth to snap back a retort, but paused.

"Oh my stars." Blue said. "I'm actually right, aren't I?"

"I...I'm just trying to keep on being wary," Jane said defensively, "it would suck to be caught off-guard, and when the real fighting kicks off, they won't need me as much as they need me now..." It sounded stupid even to her own ears, and Jane blushed as Blue laughed.

"Oh my god I can't believe I was right! I was just guessing, I don't even know what it looks like when a human 'runs themselves ragged'. Wow I'm getting so good at this 'humans' thing."

"Alright then, what do I do?" Jane couldn't help smiling at her synthetic friend's enthusiasm.

"Tell you what. I promise I'll keep an eye on any Terran that sets foot in range of my cameras. You go out and...I don't know, do something fun. Something that recharges your mental batteries. Something that ISN'T the worrying and fretting and staring at screens that you've been doing for the past week. No Orbital work."

"So you're saying I can worry as long as I do it in the Terran forest?" Jane asked, only half-joking.

"And just for that smart-assed comment, some additional homework: I'm setting your screen to ping you at the top of every hour. When you get that ping, I want you to say to yourself, out loud, something positive in your life that you're grateful for. The first one is in twenty minutes, but let's test it out now." Jane's screen at her belt gave a small ping.

"I'm grateful for busybody friends who think they know what's best for me." Jane raised a hand in a mock salute as she left Blue chuckling in the empty room behind her.

She actually did end up wandering to the edge of the Terran forest, although she had no intention of entering it. Apparently it was a quite beautiful place, or so she'd been told, but when the inevitable action broke out she would prefer to be on the right side of it. She simply stood there, arms crossed, staring at the trees, enjoying how nervous she was making the "gardener". Her screen pinged, and she rolled her eyes, but she knew that Blue would probably review security logs to see if she had done it.

"I'm grateful for...I dunno, for the rookies I guess. Wherever they all are. Even the ones that hate me. I'm also grateful that no one's forcing me into a god-damned Terran forest." She growled quietly.

***

"This is such a horrifyingly bad idea." Preston whispered, but he was grinned from ear to ear.

"Are you saying you want to stop?" Missy whispered too, not because she was scared of getting caught, but because her lips were inches away from his ear, and she knew how much he liked the feeling of her breath on his neck. "I'll stop if you tell me to stop, but if you don't, I don't know if I can keep my hands off of you." Her lips brushed across his skin as she grinned. The bulge of his erection pressing against her stomach told her the answer to her question, but she leaned back and blinked with wide innocent eyes.

"I'm not telling you to stop, you fuckin' tease." Preston growled, "I'm just saying hanging out in a Terran forest is a bad idea." His bravado was ruined by the way his eyes flicked from side to side. Missy liked that. When they had first started their relationship, it had been she who was afraid, she who was unconfident. He had coaxed the sexual side of her out and into the open, and now *she* was the adventurous one, it was *she* who got to tease *him* about being uncomfortable.

"Geez, you are terrified." Missy giggled. She could feel his heartbeat hammering through the soft fabric of his shirt as she slid her hands up and down his clothed chest. Preston leaned his head back against the tree trunk he leaned against, closing his eyes.

"I'm not terrified, I'm just...*concerned* that if the Terrans catch us having sex in their forest, we'll get in more trouble than if-" His words cut out with a gasp as Missy took advantage of his closed eyes to grab between his legs and squeeze. She slowly rubbed the stiffening head through his pants, half-smiling as she watched his face. In the mottled green light of the Terran's forest her lover's golden hair made him look like a prince or a fairy from a book. He was handsome enough that she still sometimes had trouble believing he was all hers.

"You know, there used to be a time when the prospect of getting caught turned you on." Missy said quietly, stepping back and releasing his package with reluctance. His eyes were still closed, and she grinned and slipped her arms through the sleeves of her shirt. When he opened them again, she was standing a few paces away from him, holding her balled up shirt in her hand. There was somehow always a breeze in the forests, and the feeling of it on her bare skin was almost as good as the triumphant feeling she got as he drank the sight of her in.

"Am I losing my touch, Preston? Does your innocent and naive girlfriend just not do it for you anymore?" She batted her long eyelashes at him. In contrast to her professed innocence, she ran a hand up her bare stomach and squeezed her own breast, softly pinching her pink nipple between thumb and forefinger. She didn't have to fake the small moan of pleasure, and her other hand trailed down to untie the strings of her pants. With a few small motions they hung loose on her hips, just low enough that a small strip of her brown pubic hair showed over their edge.

"What happens if someone comes by?" Preston mustered, his eyes moving to the motion of her hand as it rolled her hard nipple between her fingers, then down to the barely-concealed place where she wanted attention. He was close to jumping her, so close she considered just ordering him to and getting it over with. Missy resisted the impulse; it was so much more fun when she made him pounce her of his own volition. When she glanced down and noted how hard he had gotten, she smiled. Just a little dirty talk was all it would take.

"Then that someone will see your girlfriend, completely naked." Still matching his gaze, she threw her balled up shirt as far away as she could. "That someone," she continued, slipping her pants down her legs and stepping out of them, "would see you pushing deep inside of my *cunt*," she relished the crude word on her lips as she kicked the pants away. The breeze against her legs and arms was just a little chilly now, but the benefits far, far outweighed the chill.

She stepped closer, pressing her body against him, ignoring the prickle of twigs and leaves against her bare feet and focusing instead on how the bulge of Preston's erection felt pushing up against her mound. She stood on her tiptoes, shivering a little as the rough fabric of his pants slipped against her thighs; his cock pressing against her pussy with only a layer of cloth between them. Missy wrapped her arms around Preston's neck and whispered her final words into his ear.

"That person would see you pounding me, splitting me with your giant cock, fucking me so hard it *hurts*. They would hear me moaning your name, and they would be jealous."

Preston grunted as he lifted her, and she grinned when he yanked his pants down; too hurried to get undressed, too desperate with lust to do anything but take her. She was so wet that his entire length met no resistance when he impaled her, and she closed her eyes and lost herself to the feeling of his shaft stretching her, filling her, completing her. Missy gasped into his ear, knowing that he wouldn't care what she was saying as long as he could hear her voice breaking with pleasure every time he thrust inside of her.

"And you said...going to...the forest...was...a bad idea."

***

"Oh crap, someone save us! It's a Terran attack force!" Alex cried, her voice bouncing around the almost empty training room.

"Ha ha, very funny." Tes closed the door behind her and set down her small bag, stretching her arms. "I wish you wouldn't say that so loud. You'd be surprised at how many people would consider it a good enough excuse to start slinging spells at me." She saw Jackson open his mouth to correct her, and she raised a hand to stop him. "I know, I know, you don't use spells you use bull-heads or something. They're spells to me."

"Aw I'm sorry hon. I'm sure you got plenty of strange looks on the way here, I didn't mean to push your buttons." Alex gave her a sympathetic look.

"They're bullets, actually. Have you considered wearing a wig?" Jackson asked thoughtfully. As usual, Tes had to search his face for a few moments before she realized he was joking. She still wasn't quite used to Orbitan humor, but she was at least getting more familiar with Jackson.

"I would, but if a Terran wears a wig it slowly changes to match our true hair color, so it's rather pointless." Tes replied, pulling her climbing gear out of the bag she carried.

"Really? How does that work exactly?" Jackson paused midway through yanking on his own gear to stare at her. Tes just continued clasping the straps and clipping on her tether, until his face finally cleared. "You were joking."

*Oh good, that DID count as an Orbitan joke.* Tes smiled, relieved.

"You know if anyone gives you any real trouble, you can point them out to us and we'll have a talk with them." Jackson grunted as they started their climb up the training wall. "Terran or not, you're still our squadmate."

"I appreciate the offer, but..." Tes searched for the words to communicate her feelings.

"But you're an idiot, Jackson." Alex broke in. She was already a little higher on the wall than them, and Tes had to focus to keep up.

"What did I do?" Jackson didn't seem to mind that he was falling behind, and he gave Alex a look of injured innocence.

"You basically said we would defend her, not because she's our friend, but because she's our squadmate. You even threw a nice 'Terran or not' in there."

"Oh." Jackson lapsed into silence, and Tes gave Alex an appreciative smile. It was understanding like that that made Tes like this particular ex-squaddie. "I apologize Tes, I didn't mean for it to sound that way. I'm still learning, you know? Re-training my mind as well as my body."

"It's okay." She replied. It was open-mindedness like that that made Tes like Jackson.

"I dunno Jackson," Alex said, "you're falling pretty far behind there, can you really say you're training your body all that well?"

"Oh I did that on purpose so I can stare at your butts on the way up." Jackson grinned.

"Jackson!" Alex scolded.

"What would your red-haired girlfriends say?" Tes giggled.

"They'd probably warn me about teasing friends who can magically make me blind."