Chapter Twenty #2
“Of course,” Aphrodite motioned breathlessly for Rexna to continue.
“Might it be something you make? It would honor me to have you make something for me.” Rexna bounced from mighty foot to mighty foot.
They clasped two hands before them in a prayer.
“I would have created you something, but I figured the tools were more important first, then we can trade inventions.”
Trade…inventions? Aphrodite squeaked, her mouth flopped open. “Of course! I would be delighted!”
“Most invigorating! I cannot wait to see what you create, Mphronatch! I shall return to my lab in the engine room, but should you need me, I am there. Your drone knows where I am…he found me quite unsettlingly fast.” Their eyes snapped to Buddy with a squint.
Yeah, that’s fair. Aphrodite laughed and waved Rexna goodbye, not wanting to stay in the conversation about her drone.
Buddy had secrets and Aphrodite knew better than to ask things she wasn’t ready to know.
She collected the paper and stuffed it into the Vroz equivalent of a cardboard box. Tucking the box under her desk for later inspection, she hopped up onto her stool. Buddy was prodding the data pad with his tentacle.
“Hold on, Buddy,” she laughed. Cranking it on, she was thankful for a simple button press mechanic on the back.
After sliding the case over the data pad, she found it booted up without issue.
In seconds she was back in a basic system.
Neither Vroz nor Human, it was empty with a simple swirling blue background.
A blank canvas. Peering up to her drone, she smiled.
“It’d probably be simpler to upgrade my data pad into this one, huh, instead of tearing it apart.
What do you think? Lens click once for yes, two for no? ”
One click. Nodding, she turned her attention to the data pad and switched it off.
She peeled the cover off the data pad and got to work.
Keeping most of the device as it was, she worked around the blank canvas.
It wasn’t set for one function or the other.
She imputed commands for her drone as well with a command screen for Buddy to talk to her, giving it the same programs for scanning and analyzing.
However, as she was picking at its guts, she was struck by inspiration.
Spinning from the data pad, she glanced at the wall lining the whole lab.
The belly of the ship was framed by a wall of bits and things one might need.
She sprang off her stool and raced to the wall, Buddy zipping after her.
Aphrodite was already intending to upgrade Buddy! Might as well adapt the software!
Arms full of bits and bobbles, she trotted back to her desk. “Oh, Buddy, you’re gonna be so fucking cool in about 24 to 48 hours!”
Hunched over the desk, Aphrodite got to work. No thinking of angler fish people eating other people. No Max or Danny or Tedros or Carso. No Winrow Smith or the human space station. Just her and what she could accomplish with a soldering iron.
The lab stank of hot metal and adhesive by the time she cracked the frame back together.
Sliding the protective case over the device and strapping it to her arm felt good.
Turning it on by double tapping her screen felt better.
Seeing it boot up fully without hesitation, a green background and command screen, ready to program, was the best. She pumped her arm up and down.
Her legs kicked under her as she poked at the screen swiftly.
Aphrodite organized the applications across the main screen and was nose deep in linking them together when other footsteps came toward her.
She tore her attention away from her device to find Xexis.
He was in more official garb than she’d ever seen.
A black fabric robe that wrapped around his torso but was sleeveless.
There were rings of shimmering crystal around each of his biceps, covering the walls in the lab with rainbows.
He wore military style pants that had a design etched into the side of the legs.
With him walking, she couldn’t study what it was.
However, she liked how formal it made him look.
He stepped to her table, and she turned to face him fully.
“How did it go?” She arched a brow.
“They are in pain, but I did not tell them how he died. Only that he died loving and missing them. They are hurt but they will heal. His mate is strong, and she had many younglings to remember him by.” He took Rexna’s previously occupied stool and sat down.
Xexis nodded to her data pad. He probably doesn’t want to keep thinking about it.
She held it up before showing it to him. “You have performed your upgrades?”
“Well, part one. Tomorrow I’ll have to work on Buddy here.” She nodded at the metal octopus, crawling over the desk like a spider. “I have this idea in my head for him.”
“Will he still be a bulbous thing?” Xexis waved a finger at the drone.
“Yeah, I’m fond of the octopus shape, that's why I programmed him into that shell. It’s not ideal; I kept telling my superiors that it’s efficient and I could always put things in his tentacles or other things, but…
I just wanted him to be a cute little guy.
” She extended a hand to him. He bounced from the tabletop into her palm.
She flashed a warm smile to his camera lens before bringing him close to her chest. A speech bubble popped onto her screen.
Green text clicked across the screen.
Aphrodite Kerso will make me mighty.
She hugged the tiny drone to her chest. “Yes I will.”
Xexis chuckled, “Well, it is time for a break. I hunger and I know your body requires nourishment. Let's eat. Depending on how close we are to the station, you may have to wait another day to start work.”
“What? Why?” she squeaked, glancing at all her tools spread over the table. “I need to put my station back together.”
Xexis cupped her face and brought her attention back to his face. “After dinner. I require my mate, please.”
She could hear the pain in the words. Nodding, she slipped to her feet. “Yeah, it can wait. Buddy, do me a favor and stay here, watch the tools, make sure nothing rolls away.”
Buddy zipped out of her hands and bobbed back to the station. Aphrodite looped her arm through Xexis’. He led them away from the lab, winding through stations and empty tables. He cocked his head toward her, “You know no one would dare steal from your station, my mate.”
She raised a brow at him, “Ah, so you just leave your armor wherever you like, unattended?”
He squinted, the cogs in his head turning as he continued to lead them out of the lab. “Point taken.”
Grinning to herself, Aphrodite let him guide the two back toward the mess hall.
The entire ship was too quiet. Lights were lower than normal, as if the technology mourned their loss.
They entered a usually jovial space and found it empty except for the pack.
Aphrodite let Xexis go to the table while she grabbed a tray for them to share.
She’d studied his choices last time and tried to find things for him to indulge.
Pain and loss aside, he needed to smile again, and she’d do whatever she could to fix it back on his face.
Aphrodite set the tray down and slid onto the barstool between him and Reevar.
Grooug and Kiefgr were staring at the tabletop, poking at their grape-looking vegetables.
Aphrodite would have normally asked to try it, but she was worried they wouldn’t eat.
Worried that they wouldn’t smile again. With a sigh, she put something before Xexis, then put a large, fluffy roll to her mouth.
As if guided by her movements, Xexis brought a meat roll looking object to his pincers.
Reevar stuffed a fruit into his maw and filled the room with a loud crunch.
Grooug and Kiefgr popped their vegetables in their mouths.
It made her chest ache to eat in silence.
“When we get to your home station,” she cleared her throat of the bread before washing it down with a goblet of sparkling water, “are we going directly to your dad or?”
Reevar snorted, “It will be hard fighting through the crowds.”
Grooug nodded. “Busy.”
Kiefgr smiled softly up at Aphrodite, their sadness seeping away for only a moment. “It’ll be nice for Mphronatch, the station is massive and full of cool technology. So much for you to break and make from stuff.”
Aphrodite chuckled, “That sounds amazing.”
“We need a hunt,” Grooug murmured.
“Agreed,” Reevar sighed.
“Before Kannatch becomes official Kannatch.” Kiefgr nodded vigorously.
Xexis rumbled with a warmth she hadn’t seen in him since this morning. “One last hunt as pack would be nice. After we’ve spoken with Korzavic, I will find us a hunt.”
Aphrodite furrowed her brows, looking between all of them. “What do you mean? Are—” She glanced at Xexis. “Are you not hunting anymore?”
“I am Kannatch.” He took a massive bite into his meal.
Reevar put a hand to her shoulder, squeezing it. Then, like Aphrodite suddenly understood, her heart broke. Xexis was mated now, he would only hunt with her…mates hunt as a pair. She glanced at the crew. They were all soft and staring at their food with sorrow. Her voice cracked, “Oh, I’m sorry.”
“For what?” Reevar cocked his head to the side.
“I’ve broken the stag party,” she whispered.
Xexis blinked rapidly in question, “The male deer?”
“No, she means friend group.” Reevar peeked over Aphrodite’s head at Xexis before returning his attention to Aphrodite. “Mphronatch, we are happy Kannatch has found his mate. We all worked together to help him craft your mating hunt, both times.”
Grooug snickered but said nothing as he popped more vegetables in his mouth. Kiefgr offered her a better smile and sway of their body as they spoke, “It was an honor to stab.”
Aphrodite sputtered, laughing and pitying them in the same weak sound.
Xexis wrapped an arm around her and brought her close to his body.
As the group mourned their lost crew, the pain of defeat over Fqa’s illness, and the slow breaking up of their pack, Aphrodite sat there.
She didn’t want to regret finding Xexis.
It stings to see them so heart broken. Laying her head against him, she sighed.
“So, I guess I need to put new armor up to the top of my list, huh?”
“Once we have settled the human issue, armor would be good idea, yes.” He nodded, rubbing her side affectionately. “We could craft it together. Younglings make their armor with their mentor, but as you never had a mentor to make armor for you, it would be my honor.”
Kiefgr sighed dreamily, “I can’t wait to find my mate. I wish to make armor with someone.”
Grooug grunted, “I can wait.”
Reevar shook his head, chuckling, “The stars will find them when the stars are ready.”
Grooug glanced up, pointed an accusatory finger at the ceiling of the mess hall, and snarled, “You had better wait.”
Aphrodite and Xexis burst with deep in their bellies laughter.
She dried the tears from laughing too hard on his robes.
Xexis stomped his feet with his head tossed back.
The mess hall lightened from the ominous tension.
The pack cracked up, one after the other, and broke into a fit of wheezing cackles.
Reevar slapped all four palms to the table, gasping for air.
Kiefgr made goofy faces at Grooug. Grooug faced the younger hunter and squared up.
The pair began to box at the table with wide smiles plastered to their faces.
It was what they needed. Aphrodite smiled to herself, watching them break out of their sorrow, taking swats at each other.
When her gaze landed on her mate, he spared her a swift nudge to her side.
She leaned into him. His forehead pressed to hers and all was right with the stars. For only a moment, the stars had mercy.