Archive of Our Own ^beta

Questa was unused to being unable to control her own gravity. She was unused to being unable to control her proximity to others, but now that Grigon was holding the Communiverse captive, she had no real choice. This meant the fear she felt was not only her own. Not all of her emotions were the same as her fellow Ambassadors: her own disappointment at Elio's failure of negotiation was tempered by her awareness that Elio had been equally as disappointed in himself, but the other Ambassadors' disappointment and anger at the human was fully formed, overwhelmed only by their fear and anger towards Lord Grigon, which Questa could in no way fault anyone for feeling as she also felt it. 

Only when Lord Grigon entered Questa's zone of captivity, she could sense his fear, shame, despair at the loss of his son out who knows where in the cosmos, and Questa's own feelings surrounding her captivity diminished in the presence of such grief. She would never fully comprehend such grief, as her species parthenogenically divided into offspring and thus never were nearly as vulnerable as young Hygularians were (or, Questa thought as she remembered how she felt in Elio's mind, as vulnerable as young humans were). Her fear would return as Lord Grigon tested his force fields against his lava cannons, as Questa hid and tried to find nonexistent cover from the projectile flumes of flame.

Elio's unexpected return with Lord Grigon's spawn was a giant relief. Questa hoped, as Lord Grigon cycled through the stages of grief, as Glordon returned to his ideal temperature, as the war-mongering Hygularian removed his carapace and swaddled his son to raise the young Hygularian's temperature, that the duo might miss their home planet and leave the Communiverse for good. That was indeed what appeared to occur, so Questa, at the request of the other Ambassadors such as Ambassador Helix, made Elio a badge to be the Earthling Ambassador.

However, upon seeing his aunt's devastation, Elio turned down the offer. The Communiverse Ambassadors accepted this for now, Questa well-aware a plan to abduct a new adult human was in the leaders' thoughts and would likely soon be underway, preferably choosing a grown human (or other intelligent species? Earth had many species, the human space package had examples of less intelligent ones, but perhaps humanity had only chosen a few species as samples? More research would need to be done; perhaps Elio when he was older could help) with specialized training in leadership. That aunt was a member of the military - perhaps a suitable leader could be found among others in the military? Now that the Communiverse had made contact once, making future contact would be simpler.

Perhaps Questa could read the next human or other Earthlings' mind prior to giving them a tour of the Communiverse next time, so that the contacted one will not fall in love with the Communiverse the way Elio had and lie in an effort to stay longer. Or perhaps whoever it was who created the message sending apparatus Elio had used to reach out to the Communiverse was who the Communiverse Ambassadors truly wanted:  further communication with the Solis would inform the Ambassadators that Gunther Melmac was the madman who had made the software that Elios had used to contact the Communiverse, and that he was currently unemployed. Perfect.