Cousins/Scattered Shadows
Posted on Sat Oct 31st, 2026 @ 12:05pm by Commander Rhupert Tyree
1,284 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Background/Behind the Scenes
Location: USS Orcrist, Sparring room IV, Docked at Empok Nor.
Timeline: Second Day at Empok Nor for Scattered Shadows Mission.
When the door chime went off, Cadence reached up, grabbed the pull-up handle he’d installed above the doorframe between his bedchamber and the rest of his quarters. The crunch-up was moderately difficult, the muscles in his back and midriff sore from his ‘core’ day workout and he decided that needed more attention.
The chime sounded again. Whoever was outside held the button down this time and the chime reverberated in protest as Cade picked up a towel and padded barefoot toward his door.
“Yes yes,” he the Orcrist’s chief counselor said, “I’m coming…”
At his approach, the door went one-way transparent and he saw a tall, dark haired, slightly heavy set man leaning against his door hatch frame, thumb on his right hand repeatedly pushing the annunciator. Rhu was dressed in training robes and Cade mentally sighed.
Commander Rhupert Tyree eyed the hatch of his cousin’s quarters aboard the USS Orcrist, using his thumb in an attempt to annoy the ship’s counselor. When he picked up the mental sigh against his mind, he grinned. ~”Open the door, Cousin.”~ He sent with a grin, ~”I can sense you lurking behind the door.”~
Grinning, Cade keyed the hatch and it cycled and he held up a hand and pushed it forward to greet his cousin in the traditional Betezoid. Rhu’ altered his thumb into the open handed greeting and they briefly touched palms, establishing the touch link that balanced both of their psychic energies.
Then the Captain of the USS Valiant looked Cade over and said out loud. “You should keep your quarters warmer…shrinkage Cade is not the best way to answer your door. Now. Let me in. Go put something on and get your workout kit.”
Cade regarded his cousin with some unease and sighed. “I just finished..”
“Ab day so the Princess passengers aboard the Orcrist are all impressed by your gut. Yes,” Rhu said with humor. How many have you gotten to go along for the ride now? And before you start complaining, I know that Orcrist is docked and you’re on call. That means you have free time. Let’s go.”
Ignoring his cousin, Cade sighed and stepped back, walking toward his room, back stiff as he belatedly started to wrap the towel around his waist, then just gave up and threw it at the recycler panel. The towel registered as soiled and it flashed from existence as the system recycled it due to its proximity.
Stepping in through the open hatch, Rhu looked about his cousins quarters. The muted, olive wall tones and beige accent wall at odds with a few paintings he recognized that had been done with the reactive psychic-impressionist paint from Betezoid…the Thawil tradition was used to capture and radiate the artists intended feelings for the piece. “Your quarters are coming along,” Rhu said approvingly. He glanced down and said, “Your carpeting needs work..fleet standard, Cade? I’m shocked.”
Cade made a rude noise as he walked back out dressed in training robes himself, his own beige and black compared to Rhu’s burgundy and black were a not so subtle reminder that his Cousin had dedicated more time to the N’ral arts than Cade had ever thought he needed to.
“How’s Valiant?” he asked as he checked through his bags collection of pads and training gear.
“Cramped, but the crew gets a lot of shore leave…we made six ports of call on the trip here, though that ate up some extra days. We needed to show the flag and talk to people.”
“Valiant still seconded to Fed Intel then?,” Cade asked as the two men exited his quarters and started walking. “And where are we going?”
“Yes, for now at least. It keeps us busy. Escort duty and fast courier missions is the normal duty,” Rhu commented. There was more of course and he knew that Cade knew. The two had shared a bond since they were little. And that mental contact picked up as they both carried on a vocal conversation as Rhu led him through to one of the Orcrist’s training rooms.
Cade felt his cousins careful answers to his questions about the Valiant and her intelligence work. They were careful…curated but he could understand that.
Expected it really.
The next two hours were spent sparring, Rhu led Cade through various kata for warmups, then into grappling and then into striking measures followed up by weapons. They had padded up and went full contact for a full contact spar for the last ten minutes and both now sat getting their breath back a few feet from one another.
Rhu pulled his helmet off and threw it toward the recycling plate as he lay back onto the padded flooring and stretched as he pulled off pads. “Twelve touches to eight. You’re getting out of condition and form,” he told Cade with a grin. “Too much of that wine woman and song in a soft billet.”
Cade knew his cousin was teasing, but the training had hit home as well. Rhu was one of the few that had pushed deeply into N’ral, the Betezoid marital arts. The old forms weren’t frowned upon. Really but N’ral was an direct form, not like the reactive S’ral form that was favored by most of the population.
Rhu had went down the N’ral path after losing his parents to the Dominion war and Rhu had come to live with him and his family.
Rhu through glove at his cousin as his mind and conversation drifted and sat up, “My point…”
“Yes yes,” Cade said moving to a cross legged position. Their breathing had eased and the mental link between them fluctuated as Cade took the criticism. “New ship and being appointed department head…I’ve been busy.”
~”Excuses,” Rhu said through their mental link. ~”Are handy things. But alright. I forgive you.”~
~”Big of you,”~ Cade sent back good naturedly. “So now what?” He verbalized as the two moved to a meditation-recovery sitting, switching through the prescribed stretching/yoga movements known as Ral’.
Rhu stood and bent at the waist to stretch out his back and joints, “I don’t know, Cousin.” He stated, though the voice was muffled and Cade had to depend on his mental link to pick up all the words. “Food? Then we could go to Neverwinter…I think the Betezoid mission still has me registered for a VIP service…”
Cade brightened at that. “Nice…I think we absolutely do that. When does?”
Rhu picked up the mental cues and said, “Another two days at least. No orders yet.”
Growing up, the two had been close enough to finish each other’s sentences and Cade could feel that link establishing again and smiled. Rhu had been something of a mess when he lost his parents and that had taken years for the young man to come to grips with.
And now he and Rhu could go clubbing together again.
Rhu picked up the thought process as he moved out of his stretch and picked up the A’kai fighting sticks he’d used for the weapons bit. He linked the two fighting sticks back into the one piece quarterstaff then collapsed it into down to the palm sized rod transport size before slipping into his kit bag. He began picking up the padding and moving them into the recycler/cleaning bin and said knowingly, “Red heads?”
“If we’re lucky,” Cade said with enthusiasm.
END
A solo post by:
Commander Rhupert Tyree
Master and Commander
USS Valiant
Also writing;
Lieutenant Cadence Tyree
Chief Counselor, USS Orcrist
RSS Feed