Chapter 640

ARIA

“Why were you there,” Killian said.

Kael looked at the window.

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“He had someone we needed,” Ivory said. “Someone the Westmark Alpha had taken under questionable circumstances and we had information about it and we decided-”

“We decided very quickly,” Jordan said. “On a timeline that did not involve adult supervision.”

“We were teenagers,” Nina said. “We were specifically without adult supervision. That was the point.”

“We extracted the person,” Kael said. “The situation was resolved. The remaining question was the exit.”

“The exit,” Jordan said. “Which required a vehicle.”

“Ivory was the one who’d driven,” Nina said. “I had the provisional license. Jordan didn’t drive. Elite had the capacity but was occupied. Kael was-”

“Occupied,” Kael said.

“Occupied in the way of someone who’d just resolved a situation with his hands in a manner that required him to be quiet for a while,” Jordan said.

“I was fine,” Kael said.

“He was fine,” Ivory said. “He was also-”

“Fine,” Kael said.

“-leaking somewhat,” Ivory said. “So driving was not the immediate priority.”

“You were hurt,” Killian said to Kael.

“Slightly,” Kael said. “Ivory fixed it. In the car.”

“While I was driving,” Ivory said.

“While she was also driving,” Kael confirmed.

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“So,” Jordan said, taking the narrative, “Ivory was driving, treating Kael, reading a map-”

“I was not reading the map at that specific moment,” Ivory said.

“You were attempting to read the map,” Jordan said.

“The map was-”

“You were in a trailer,” Nina said.

“It was a delivery vehicle,” Ivory said. “It was the available option. The territory was—

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“You were driving a large delivery vehicle,” Jordan said, “that you had never driven before, while treating Kael’s injury, in a territory you were trying to leave quickly, with three other people in the back-”

“And the extracted individual,” Elite said, from the middle.

Everyone looked at Elite.

“The person we’d gone to retrieve,” Elite said. “They were also in the vehicle.”

“Five people,” Jordan said. “And Ivory. In a delivery trailer.”

“I was one of the people,” Ivory said.

“You were the driver,” Jordan said. “That’s a separate category.”

“I was LEARNING,” Ivory said.

–

“IT WAS A HUGE ASS TRAILER,” Nina said, and there was no other word for it — she yelled it, with the specific capital-letters quality of someone who’d been waiting seventeen years to say this at this exact volume. “IT WAS A HUGE ENORMOUS ENORMOUS TRAILER AND YOU

RAN IT INTO EVERYTHING.”

“I missed most things,” Ivory said.

“YOU HIT THE GATE,” Nina said.

“The gate was-”

“YOU HIT THE GATE AND THE FENCE AND THAT OTHER THING-”

“The bollard,” Jordan supplied.

“THE BOLLARD AND THEN THE OTHER BOLLARD-”

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“There were two bollards,” Jordan confirmed.

“-AND KAEL WAS SCREAMING AGAIN-”

“I was expressing concern,” Kael said.

—AND JORDAN WAS SCREAMING AGAIN—”

“Also expressing concern,” Jordan said.

“-AND I HAD PASSED OUT AGAIN,” Nina said, arriving at the conclusion. “I had passed out from shock. I woke up when we were outside the territory.”

“You missed the exciting part,” Ivory said.

“I woke up outside the territory,” Nina said. “On the grass. Someone had moved me from the vehicle.”

“I moved you,” Elite said.

“You carried me out of the trailer,” Nina said.

“You were in the way,” Elite said.

“I was unconscious,” Nina said.

“Also in the way,” Elite said.

“I eventually got better at driving,” Ivory said, to Killian, with the specific dignity of someone closing a subject.

“When,” Kael said.

“I’m significantly better now than I was at seventeen,” she said.

“That is a very low bar,” Kael said.

“I passed my examination,” she said.

“We don’t discuss the examination,” Jordan said.

“What happened at the examination,” Killian said.

“We don’t discuss it,” Jordan said.

“One incident,” Ivory said.

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“One incident,” Jordan confirmed.

“With the examiner,” Ivory said.

“He was fine,” Jordan said.

“He was completely fine,” Ivory said. “Minor. Barely significant.”

“Is that why your license has a note on it,” Kael said.

“The note is-”

“There’s a note,” Jordan confirmed, to Killian. “On the license. A physical notation.”

“What does it say,” Killian said.

“It says,” Jordan said, with the specific quality of someone who’d read this notation and had committed it to memory, “Candidate demonstrated unconventional spatial awareness. Passed conditional. Recommend additional practice in reverse maneuvers.”

“Unconventional spatial awareness,” I said.

“It’s very diplomatic,” Jordan said.

“I reverse fine,” Ivory said.

Everyone in the car said nothing.

“I reverse adequately,” she said.

Still nothing.

“I reverse,” she said.

“Yes,” Kael said. “You do. That’s accurate.”

“There was also,” Kael said, “the other incident.”

“Which one,” Jordan said.

“The one where Ivory was driving,” Kael said.

The car went quiet.

Not the comfortable quiet – the specific quiet of people who’d had a shared experience that still, apparently, had some residual weight.

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“We don’t need to- Ivory started.

“Ivory was driving,” Kael said, in the tone of someone who had been waiting for the right moment to introduce this particular piece of history and had decided the moment had arrived.

“I was learning,” Ivory said.

“She was learning to drive,” Kael said, to me and Killian. “She said she knew how. She had been

– how did you describe it?”

–

“Observing extensively,” Ivory said.

“She had been observing extensively,” Kael said. “From the passenger seat. She said the observational learning method was equivalent to practical experience for someone with her processing speed.”

“I stand by that assessment,” Ivory said.

“She stood by that assessment,” Kael said, “at seventeen, in a situation where we needed to move quickly from a specific location for reasons I will not fully detail-”

“We had done something we should not have done,” Jordan said helpfully.

“We had made certain choices,” Kael said, “that required expedient relocation. Ivory was closest to the driver’s seat. Ivory said she could drive.”

“I said I could probably drive,” Ivory said.

“She said she could probably drive,” Kael confirmed. “The word probably did not receive the attention it deserved at the time.”

“What happened,” I said.

Kael looked at the ceiling.

Jordan made the sound.

“She ran into the first thing within twenty meters,” Kael said.

“It was in my path,” Ivory said.

“What was it,” Killian said.

“A fence post,” Ivory said.

“A fence post,” Jordan said. “Which then-”

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“The fence was connected to it,” Ivory said. “I wasn’t aware of the extent of the fence.”

“She took out the fence post,” Kael said, “which had the additional consequence of—”

“Releasing the animals,” Jordan said.

“Whose animals,” I said.

“Farmer’s,” Kael said. “We were near agricultural land.”

“The specific kind of animals,” Jordan said, “was pigs. A large number of pigs. Who were now in the road.”

“Oh,” I said.

“The pigs,” Ivory said, “were a manageable obstacle.”

“IVORY,” Kael said.

“They moved,” she said.

“They moved when you drove at them,” he said.

“Which caused them to move,” she said. “Effectively.”

“She drove at a field of pigs,” Jordan said, to me and Killian, with the expression of a man who’d lived through the driving-at-pigs incident and was still processing it years later. “To clear the road. By driving at them.”

“It worked,” Ivory said.

“It worked,” Jordan confirmed. “And then-”

“The trailer was unexpected,” Ivory said.

“IVORY IT WAS A HUGE FUCKING TRAILER,” Nina said, from the front, at a volume that suggested the trailer was still, for Nina, a fresh wound. “IT WAS ON THE ROAD. IT WAS VERY VISIBLE. I COULD SEE IT. KAEL COULD SEE IT. JORDAN COULD SEE IT. THE PIGS

COULD PROBABLY SEE IT.”

“I was focused on the pigs,” Ivory said.

“She was focused on the pigs,” Jordan said.

“The trailer was not pigs,” Nina said.

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“It was not pigs, Jordan confirmed.

“I corrected in time,” Ivory said.

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“You corrected,” Kael said, “in the specific way of someone who had not anticipated the trailer and was now doing everything simultaneously while the rest of us were doing the screaming. All the times Ivory drove, it ended in us screaming and everything she eats back behind the driver seat, it is like we never learn. I was not screaming though,”

“Kael was screaming,” Jordan interjected laughing.

“Everyone was screaming,” Kael said, concedeing to this but barely

“Kael specifically was-” Jordan started.

“Everyone was screaming,” Kael said again, firmly.

“There was a specific pitch,” Jordan said.

“Jordan,” Kael said.

“From a specific person,” Jordan said.

“JORDAN,” Kael said.

“I’m just providing the historical record,” Jordan said.

“The historical record is complete,” Kael said.

“Kael screamed,” Ivory said, pleasantly. “I remember it clearly. It was a memorable sound.”

“We all screamed,” Kael said.

“You screamed first,” Ivory said.

“The trailer was very close,” Kael said.

“It was,” Ivory agreed.

“And you drove at it,” Kael said.

“I corrected,” Ivory said.

“After driving at it,” he said.

“Before any contact was made,” she said.

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“Barely,” he said.

“Barely counts,” she said.

“Nina passed out again,” Jordan said.

“I CHOSE NOT TO BE CONSCIOUS,” Nina said.

“Twice in one road trip,” Jordan said.

“It was a stressful road trip,” Nina said.

“You chose not to be conscious twice,” Jordan said.

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“I made the optimal choice for my wellbeing in the available circumstances,” Nina said.

“Nina refused to be in a vehicle with her for six months after the trailer incident,” Kael said.

“I needed the six months,” Nina said.

“And then she got back in the car,” Kael said. “Which is very Nina.”

“I got back in the car,” Nina confirmed, “because I tested Ivory’s driving capabilities before re- entry and she met the threshold.”

“What was the threshold,” Killian said.

“Not hitting stationary objects,” Nina said.

“That’s a low threshold,” Killian said.

“It was a carefully calibrated threshold,” Nina said. “Based on recent evidence.”

“The signpost was not stationary,” Ivory said. “It had some flex.”

The car was laughing.

Ivory had the expression of someone who was entirely satisfied with how this conversation had

gone.

“I WAS LEARNING,” she said, at the volume of the original declaration, which was apparently a thing she’d said at the time and was now recreating for historical accuracy.

“WE NEARLY DIED,” Kael said, in the same register.

“WE SURVIVED,” she said.

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“BECAUSE OF LUCK,” he said.

“BECAUSE OF SKILL,” she said.

“IVORY-”

“BARELY COUNTS,” she said.

I was laughing.

Killian was laughing.

Silver said: *This.*

*I know, I said.

*This is what we’re fighting for,* she said.

*I know,* I said.

Firshed 1

*All of it,* Silver said. *The pigs and the trailer and the name tag and the journal and the song.

*I know,* I said.

Outside the window, Cassium’s territory was getting closer.

But for right now, we were in a car.

And the car was laughing.

And Ivory was explaining, to a vehicle full of people who had all been there, why driving at the pigs was actually the correct tactical decision and the trailer had been entirely manageable, and Kael was saying IVORY and she was saying I WAS LEARNING and the road ahead was long and the car was warm and all of it – every ridiculous ordinary extraordinary piece of it — was worth every single thing it was going to cost.

–

A/n: Note to y’all, Whisper 119 can’t drive and I have been banned from driving anywhere after i almost made my friends meet Jesus when they were not ready, but no I did not drive into the middle of a road with moving cars, but I did destroy a farm barn, I had fun recreating this.