B7 fic: Mating Rituals
Written for 10_hurt_comfort : prompt 6: embarrassed
Title: Mating Rituals
Author: gideon_spilett
Claim: Blake's 7: Avon
Table: do-it-yourself
Prompt: 6 Embarrassed
Rating: G
Summary: Set in series 2, shortly after Horizon. Auronar physiology forces Cally to leave unless Avon does something about it.
Notes: This is a fic I wrote a long time ago, but never finished. Recently I dusted it off, rewrote it and I intend to write a second chapter, which I will post in prompt 4 (First Time) of my table.
Mating Rituals
They had all more or less recovered from their ordeal on Horizon. All except Vila of course. He intended to fully take advantage of the fact that he was subjected to hard physical labour. The others ignored the complaints about the severity of his injuries as a result of the horrific experience. Blake had ordered his crew to relax and Avon took advantage of their self induced rest period to do some research on the ship.
Cally had changed since Horizon. Physically she seemed all right but Blake suspected that something had happened which caused her to brood. Funny thing about it was that Cally looked more beautiful than ever. She appeared to be radiating elegance and beauty while at the same time she seemed to be thoroughly unhappy. She spent too much time inside her cabin and didn't come out for their joint dinners.
A good week after Horizon, when Cally had failed to attend another early meeting, Blake decided to confront her after breakfast. He was very surprised when the Auron did turn up in the mess room. It was hard for Blake to take his eyes off her. She seemed to be getting more attractive by the day. He was sure that the other male members of the crew had also noticed this, because even Gan's eyes would linger on the alien a little longer than necessary. Blake suspected that Jenna, being a member of the same sex, was not affected by this. She bade everyone good morning and sat down, a resolved look on her face. Apparently she had not come to eat breakfast.
"I have an announcement to make." Cally said."I'm leaving you. I request that you drop me off on the next suitable planet."
Blake was stunned into silence. This was the last thing he'd expected.
"Why?" Vila asked. He was genuinely shocked by the news.
"It has nothing do with you, but I feel that I can no longer remain on board the Liberator. There will be ... complications if I stay."
"Cally, we have all noticed that something is bothering you." Blake said sympathetically. "Since Horizon, you've been...well, different. What caused you to make this decision?"
"Oh, it was not an easy decision." she assured him. "Nothing would please me more than to stay with you, but I'm forced to leave."
"Who's forcing you?" Vila asked casting a suspicious look at Avon.
If anyone could be so cruel as to force Cally away from them he would guess it was Avon. The man never made a secret of the fact that he disliked aliens and especially disliked the 'unreasonable Auronar'. But Avon did not respond to the look he felt burning. Instead he was stirring in his tea cup, watching the steam rise in small crinkles.
"Nobody's forcing me. If you like a simple explanation...my Auronar physiology is forcing me."
"All right. Explain." Blake sat down beside her. "Why is your Auronar physiology suddenly a problem when it wasn't all these months before."
"Something happened last week which set in motion the process of T 'Accoplamèr. It happens to every Auron at some point in their life. It will be difficult to control if I remain on board."
"Could you please explain it in terms that non-Auronar understand?" Jenna asked. "I should hate to see you go."
"I'm sorry Jenna, but it is out of my hands. If I stay, I will not only make life difficult for myself, but also for all of you,...especially one of you"
"It's Avon isn't it?" Vila was sure of it.
The tech hadn't said a word yet, and it would have been so easy for him to score points on the weakness of the telepath in this matter. If he wanted a chance to rid them of the alien, this one was presented to him on a silver platter. But he just sat there, steering in his cup, demonstrably not joining the conversation.
Blake glanced over to Avon and knew Vila was right. And from his behaviour he gathered that the man was aware of the fact that he was the cause of Cally's decision to leave. Blake felt the anger rise inside him and knew that this time he would probably not be able to restrain himself. This was too important, Cally was too important to lose.
"What have you done?"
Blake got up, fully intend on forcing out the truth if the tech was uncooperative. Cally gently held him back by putting a hand on his arm and she explained that it was not Avon's fault.
"He has nothing to do with it. It's entirely my own problem and there's only one way to deal with it and that is to leave."
"Well, at least you could explain why you have to leave." Blake composed himself and sat down again.
"On Auronar we select our mate subconsciously." Cally explained. "You might say all Auronar have mates they are predestined to be with. It secures our race and the system never fails. We choose our partners and know the feeling is always requited. It's in our genes that we seek out the ones who were meant for us. Thus nature provides us with the best possible mate to secure healthy offspring."
"And your sub conscience sought out Avon?"
Blake did his best to hide his disbelief. He didn't really succeed. Cally gave him a reproachful look. She knew she was the only one who had a soft spot for Avon, even before these other feelings popped up. But she thought it unfair that the others did not even try to look beyond the cold and arrogant exterior of the man.
"The events on Horizon confirmed what I probably already knew deep in my heart, that Avon is..."
She wanted to elaborate, but thought the better of it when she sensed Avon's uneasiness through the tentative psychic link that had already been established by Cally's subconscious.
"..he couldn't leave us on Horizon and that opened my eyes ... and my heart. Unfortunately this sets in motion a sequence of biochemical and psychological reactions in our species that effects not only us, but also our chosen partners. It must have been very difficult for Avon to even be in the same room with me the past few days."
She knew this was true. Avon had been avoiding her. He felt awkward being near her. She knew he deliberately shut himself off when they were working together. He probably suspected that she was trying to reach him telepathically, which was an accurate assumption. The Auronar went through a certain chain of events while undergoing T 'Accoplamèr. One of the first stages involved forming a psychic link with their chosen partner.
Cally respected Avon enough to try and fight the process, but there was no stopping it. It was like a force of nature and totally unfair to Avon. He hadn't the faintest idea of what was happening and that must have been very unsettling. He was obviously afraid that she might creep into his mind whenever it pleased her, in search for the dark corners of his psyche, where he would never, ever let anyone look.
"I can assure you, that I have no problem being in the same room with you." Avon stated calmly.
His manner did not betray any discomfort, but Cally's senses picked up on something entirely different. He was good at hiding his feelings. Cally knew he had learned that a long time ago.
"If you can learn to live with your confusing feelings, then I see absolutely no reason why you shouldn't stay. This chemistry probably only works on two Auronar. I for myself have not experienced anything."
Blake was a little surprised at Avon's mild reaction to this particularly awkward problem and he was still puzzled about the whole business of T 'Accoplamèr.
"Auronar were a sensible and civilized race. Don't tell me they had to live with this turmoil going on inside the rest of their lives. There must be a way to stop it."
Jenna rolled her eyes and gave Blake a look. The Great Leader of the Revolution could be really dense sometimes.
"Isn't that obvious? It stops when the Auronar in question have fulfilled their duty in securing the existence of their species."
"Eh?"
Vila was the only one who had trouble understanding what she meant. But only because he was too busy gloating over Avon during the conversation. He noticed how he avoided looking at Cally, but a startled flicker in the tech's eyes caught his attention.
"They mate, Vila." Jenna explained.
The thief's face lit up in a bright smile.
"Well, there you have it then! You won't have to leave."
He got up and patted the tech on the back. Well aware of the fact that this was one of the few occasions in Avon's life where he was rendered speechless, Vila meant to fully take advantage of the man's incapacity to retort his jokes.
"Avon will do his duty as a man and you're scot free!"
He kept patting Avon's back until the subject in question seemed to make a growling sound, whereupon the thief withdrew his hand as if he were about to be bitten.
"I was under the impression that human mating rituals were a bit more complicated than that." Cally said. "The Auronar see the mating process purely as a means to reproduce. I understand that human beings grade the aspect of love and partnership very highly."
"Well, you picked the right mate then!" Vila went on, getting bolder by the minute. "Avon is not considered a member of the human race."
The silence in the tech was downright eerie now but Vila continued, ignoring the look of warning Blake cast his way.
"Anyway. Love and partnership...that's a very old fashioned way of looking at it. I'm sure Avon holds more modern views on the matter. Don't you Avon ?"
"Vila if you don't shut up right now, I will..."
The tech rose to his feet but was stopped by a warning hand on his shoulder.
"Don't let yourself be provoked, Avon." Blake said. "I know this must be a little embarrassing for the both of you, but in a way Vila's right."
That brought about an even darker look on Avon's features.
"Well, you wouldn't want to abandon Cally on some planet just because of this?"
"Wouldn't I? And what do you suggest I do about it?"
"Well, ......" Blake hesitated. He couldn't believe he was having this conversation. "....you're a man. Men have needs. We've been stuck on this ship for over a year now and I don't know about the rest of you, but I for one am willing to admit that I sorely miss some healthy R&R."
After a deliberate and loud cough from Vila he corrected himself.
"Alright, Vila...sex. We all have done without that for too long, right?"
The thief smiled brightly and turned eagerly to Avon to be able to fully enjoy this wonderful moment. The distant, arrogant Alpha, who never spoke of feelings nor of his past, was confronted with an extremely private matter. The man was so clamped up about his life that Vila didn't even know if he even liked women.
"If that's all it takes to solve the problem, it wouldn't be a great sacrifice for you." Jenna said, trying to sound as business like as possible, although she also had to admit that she enjoyed presenting Avon of all people with this dilemma. "And think of the consequences if Cally leaves. The Revolution would lose a formidable ally."
"Right. You'll just have to close your eyes and think of the Revolution." Vila concurred and couldn't resist adding: "Mind you, I'd keep them open every single second."
"Vila!"
Blake had enough of Vila's carefree approach to the subject. In his effort to humiliate Avon he was hurting Cally's feelings more than the tech's. But Cally remained calm and focused on the facts.
"Avon does not love me." she plainly said.
Blake was surprised at the lack of emotion in that statement, but understood that Cally had been pondering on this problem a lot longer than they had. She had faced the facts, considered the possibilities and had arrived at a solution. And what did he know of Auron emotions when it came to matters of the heart? She was after all an alien.
"What's love got to do with it?" Vila exclaimed. Alpha's and aliens could be so complicated sometimes.
"Isn't it common for humans to love the one they have sex with?"
Being alien to human behaviour, Cally could be very direct. Sex was not a point of discussion among the Liberator crew and with very good reason. Blake avoided the topic altogether because it painfully reminded him of the false charges the Federation had filed against him. Moreover, as a leader, he was well aware of the fact that a crew of mixed sexes would provide trouble if ever one of them acted upon his or her feelings.
Blake had discussed his position on the topic only once and that was when he practically forbade sexual relations between the crew members. Jenna would be no trouble; she liked Blake and he would never act upon his feelings towards her. Avon was not interested in the others as a sexual partner and Gan was still loyal to his dead wife. That left Vila, whom Blake had warned. Repeatedly.
The fact that he had forbidden Avon to entertain sexual relations with any other crew member would normally have resulted in Avon doing exactly that, just to goad Blake. But apparently he found satisfaction enough in obstructing Blake's plans by opposing every decision their leader made and having heated discussion about them on the bridge. He did not seem to be interested in intimacy and stayed well away from any personal involvement.
"Sex and love are two separate things."Vila said in a lecturing tone. "Right Avon?"
"My views on the matter are no business of yours."
Cally ended the discussion. She felt they weren't getting anywhere and she didn't need her psychic abilities to know that Avon was extremely embarrassed by the whole discussion.
"I know you are all trying to help.." she said. "...but I've made up my mind. I shall teleport to the next suitable planet."
And with that she left.
Vila broke the silence but had abandoned his cheerful teasing mood. He liked Cally. He liked her a lot and would be very sorry to see her go.
"We can't just let her leave."
"I have no problem with a one time breech of our agreement." Jenna stated.
"I guess we agree on that point then." Blake concluded and turned to the tech. "Avon?"
"I can't believe we're sitting here discussing whether or not I'm permitted to take Cally to my bed."
"Well, I'm sorry Avon, but although this is a highly personal matter...it concerns us all. We will all lose a good friend if you don't do something about it."
"You mean you'd rather I left." Avon added.
"Don't be like that Avon."
"What I don't understand, is that you are making such a fuss." Jenna said. "We're not asking you to father her child."
"That's not the point."
"Maybe he doesn't like women..." Vila muttered.
"Maybe you and I should step outside for a minute." Avon snarled.
Avon was not a man who threatened to use violence. Vila got the message. He made himself scarce. Blake and Jenna cleared the table and felt it best to leave Avon alone to let it all sink in.
"I'll consult ORAC on the matter." Blake said. "Maybe there are pills for this condition."
It was an idle hope and they all knew it. If there was a chemical substance to help Auron's through the process of T 'Acclopamèr, then surely Cally would have known about it.
When they left the mess room, Avon was stirring in his tea cup again....event though it was empty.
Part 2