Examining Assumptions

Hey Everyone!! :-)

Here's a little bit more of the third installment in the Petri Dish Chronicles! As always, the disclaimer is that this is a draft and, as such, it's unedited and likely full of errors and is subject to revision, revamping, and being completely scrapped and rewritten. But, with that in mind, I'm reasonably satisfied with the basics of it, at least at the moment, or I wouldn't have bothered posting it. Enjoy! :-)

Excerpt from the third Petri Dish book:
“Did the Arcanum say anything else about what they wanted to speak to me about?” asked Petri as she looked through the familiar windows of the cockpit of Daji’s ship at the field of stars beyond.

“They did not. They weren’t interested in my thoughts, and shared few of their own. A trait you seem to have inherited from them.”

Petri hissed and jumped from her seat. “You know, you’re judging me for what I am, not who I am or what I personally have done. So which of us is more like the Arcanum in that regard?”

Turning on her heel, Petri stormed through the door at the back of the cockpit and stalked off down the hall towards the ship’s living quarters.

Standing, Chessie glared down at Daji. "She's right, you know. You keep holding her responsible for what the Arcanum have done. You know she doesn’t control them. Hell, they rarely even listen to her at all, but somehow this is all her fault?”

Daji swiveled his chair around to glare back up at Chessie. “If she hadn’t introduced them to the entity..."

Chessie huffed in exasperation and waved away the rest of his sentence. “You heard what she said about that at the time, the same as I did. She didn’t tell them about him; they rifled through her mind without her permission and saw what happened on Upworld. And once they knew about him, they were determined to meet him. All that would have happened if she had refused is that you, the kid, and I would be dead, and Petri would still be their prisoner. Or maybe she’d be dead too, I don’t know how far their patience would have lasted. But you know they wouldn’t have let it go."

“I would have gladly died to…"

“Maybe you would, but I wouldn’t!" Chessie heatedly interrupted. "Nor would I have sacrificed Sadaka. Especially, when all we would have done is delay the inevitable. Sometimes you have to pick your battles.”

“This is a battle that should have been fought.”

“You’re the only one who seems to think so, Daji. Did it ever occur to you that you might be wrong?”