Chapter One, Part Five
"Ah. You must be Archon's newest pet." The words, coming from behind Julie as she cautiously explored the space outside her berth, caused her to spin sharply on her heel. Behind her, having apparently just come out of a lift, were two women who were almost identical; both just a little shorter than her, both with short-cropped hair the color of frost, both with identical pale blue eyes, both with the same lean and muscular build, both wearing tights and a crop top that left their muscular torso exposed. The only clear difference between them that she could see was the ill-healed scar twisting up and across the left one's abdomen, as if something had tried to disembowel her and she had kept the scar as a proof of her survival.
"Well, even if she is, she is still our crewmate. Let us introduce ourselves, yes?" The one without the scar made a dramatic bow as she spoke. "I am Merwyn, callsign of Knight. I am the vanguard when Archon is not deciding to lead by example in the worst of ways." The other bowed as well, the motion just a little stiffer than the other's. "And I am Merwyn, callsign of Ashes. I am close-quarter specialist for squadron, you let me go first if we are expecting to fight in tight spaces."
"Uh. I- I'm Julie. I guess my callsign is Mirror?" She made herself relax; these two were supposed to be here, they were her coworkers, and they weren't going to eat her despite the whispering from the primal part of her brain that they were dangerous.
"Mirror. Good callsign. Do you have a specialty for your role, or is it not decided yet?" The first one - Knight, I guess? If they're really named the same thing I guess I need to memorize the callsigns. - tipped her head to the side slightly. "Ah, we are missing electronic warfare specialist. 'Mirror' is a good callsign for someone who will baffle and confound the opposition. Perhaps this is what you will do, even if you do not know it yet. As much as it annoys, Archon has a gift for telling when someone can fill a need for her squad."
Ashes nodded once. "This is why we are both here, as sisters of blood, and not as a girl and her replaced innards. Archon saw us as two people, and helped us fake our deaths in the procedure that would mark Merwyn an adult, with healthy innards and no childhood cancers left, and saw us healed with the medicines of Union." She grinned, a sharp thing holding something deeply unpleasant. "I keep the scar, I say, to remind us that Merwyn of the Ashes was meant as no more than a purse to carry some health for her sister, to see her to being an adult."
"Enough. She does not need to know our story to know we are good to fight alongside." Knight elbowed her sister - clone, Julie realized belatedly, Ashes is a clone. She'd heard that some of the settled worlds relied on clones so that some people could replace failing organs without waiting, but she hadn't heard of any where it was expected that children would need clones for such. "Come! New as you are, it will be important to get your bay filled with your engine of war."
Ashes sighed, rolling her eyes slightly. "Sister, please. It is a mech. She will not be impressed by such archaic terms - not even when you call yours a steed of steel and fire that you ride to battle. It is silly." She turned to Julie, shaking her head. "Forgive my sister, she read the histories growing up, with all the romance of the phrasing, and is determined to make it how everyone refers to things."
"Just because you neglected your education, sister, does not mean others cannot appreciate the beauty of the words!" Knight sniffed dramatically. "If she wishes me to cease, like Mask, she can ask me as an adult does, not whine like a child."
The pair bracketed her even as they continued bickering, each one looping an arm through her own, and her choice became one of walking with them or being carried - and she had no doubt that they would carry her slim stationer form without even noticing, even if she tried to go limp. Julie chose to at least pretend that she had a say in the matter, and matched their pace, trying not to think too hard about how incredibly warm each of them felt alongside her.
A very small part of her wondered if they were as agile as their appearance suggested, in addition to being just as strong as they looked.
