Chapter 7
CHAPTER
SEVEN
Captain Ruciyah ushered me down a sleek hall only a few moments after his announcement.
Behind me, the muffled voices of the rest of the crew filtered through and I was almost positive I heard Rys quip: “I love that we’re known for our warm welcomes.
” Beside me, the captain loomed, the fabric of his cloak billowing against my calf every few steps as if to keep me in line, while behind us Greabes slipped a tablet out from one of the pockets of his uniform.
“According to Maxtalen, we should reach Keva Um’plem within the next twelve hours,” he muttered, tapping away on his tablet.
The captain hummed his acknowledgment, the sound gravelly through the helmet.
The hallway split and we took the left corner down a narrow corridor.
It was lined with light gray doors, all nondescript with a communication panel on the outside along with a biosignature reader.
We stopped at the second to last on the right and he gestured toward the door.
“This is your room, though I doubt you’ll find it to your liking.”
I stepped up to the scanner and Greabes shuffled forward to tap one of the buttons on the corner. A thin beam of red light spilled from the center of the reader, sliding over my face vertically, then horizontally.
“Eyes open,” Greabes instructed.
I widened my eyes as the beam narrowed to scan my irises.
When it beeped, I blinked a few times, hiking the pack higher up my shoulder.
The door silently slid open and both males stepped back so I could enter first. My room was small—considerably smaller than on the Daskquah—but I didn’t mind.
There was still a bed with a thick mattress, a few blankets and pillows, and even a small port window I could look out into space from.
“Where are the rest of your things?” Captain Ruciyah’s deep voice echoed through the room, but I didn’t turn as I set my pack down on the bed and started to pull out my belongings.
When I didn’t answer, Greabes cleared his throat. “This is all she brought.”
Silence, a sigh, and then the heavy thump of footsteps as the captain left the room. My shoulders relaxed a fraction as I refolded the clothes Lunastra had provided and carried them over to the small set of drawers beneath the window.
“Need anything?” Greabes asked.
I shook my head.
The male cast a look down the hall, undoubtedly at Captain Ruciyah’s retreating back, and ran a hand down his face.
“We have a set mealtime in the mess. I’ll come get you in a few hours for dinner, but this light here”—he touched one of the lights on the panel beside the door—“will blink when it’s time. ”
When I didn’t answer, he shifted his weight uncomfortably before grumbling something under his breath I assumed was in his own planet’s language and lumbering out of the room after Captain Ruciyah.
With a sigh I looked out the window, catching sight of the retreating planet and its silver clouds of vapor swirling in the atmosphere.
I might have lived on a spaceport for countless cycles and then on the Daskquah, but my sightings of space itself had been rare.
The captain had said I wouldn’t find the room to my liking, but I found it quite the opposite.
The ship might have felt like a prison, but prisons didn’t have port windows.
But I wasn’t sold on the crew, not with their tense silences or the way Crux had looked at me like he could see down to my bones.
I’d seen the look before and it made my stomach twist into hollow knots.
And I knew if something happened the captain would blame me, not him.
…
By the time Greabes retrieved me for dinner I’d had a few hours to familiarize myself with my room and any potential weak points. It was the same sweep I’d done when Lunastra had first brought me into my quarters on the Daskquah.
The good thing about a room this small was there was only one door—though it was also a bad thing.
There was, however, a vent above the bed just wide enough I could fit through.
I scooted the bed frame over just enough that if I put my foot on the end, I could reach it.
After working through the controls on the inside of my room, I also couldn’t ascertain whether or not anyone else had access other than me.
On the Daskquah it had just been Lunastra, and it had taken months to grow accustomed to the idea.
Greabes and I didn’t speak as we turned one more corner into the mess.
The room itself was about as large as the seating area we’d first entered when I’d boarded, except there were a few circular tables and chairs with a meal renderer hanging from the center of each.
The crew gathered at the one closest to the entrance.
I took a deep breath around the tightness in my chest, ignoring the way the group once again fell into silence at the sight of me.
Instead, I noted the food on the table: a typical variation of protein and plant matter with some brightly colored sauces and vegetables I didn’t recognize.
A seat was open beside the fair-haired male Maxtalen and I took it in favor of the one beside Crux.
“Settled in?” Maxtalen asked as I scooted the chair in and touched the edge of one of the eating sticks.
Nodding, I mimicked Zoleka across from me as she placed the rough gray napkin in her lap and set the utensils on the edge of her plate. One of the twins, Rhiaon, settled on my other side, giving me the barest grunt of acknowledgment before Captain Ruciyah came striding in.
I didn’t know why I was surprised to see he was still wearing his helmet.
It was clear eating wasn’t on the agenda from the way he stood at the end of the table and placed two gloved fingers onto the shiny top.
My skin pricked and I fought the urge to drop my attention back to my plate when his head tilted ever so slightly to the side.
“If you eat first, will you be too tired to discuss plans?” he rumbled.
Rys chuckled and even Greabes looked amused. Crux continued to stare at me, but Hudzon and Zoleka looked relaxed. Maxtalen was even flipping through some sort of schematics on his tablet.
“Depends on what you’re serving us tonight, Captain.” Rys tapped a utensil against the plate as if he couldn’t see the spread before him.
I didn’t know how it was possible to know someone was rolling their eyes without seeing their face, but I was positive Captain Ruciyah had just done it.
He rapped his knuckles on the table before striding from the room.
Biting back my frown, I checked in with the others to see if this behavior was strange, but no one else appeared bothered by it.
Most were already piling food onto their plates and Zoleka had tugged another small parchment-bound book from the inside of her billowing tunic.
“He doesn’t like to eat with us,” Maxtalen offered, sliding a plate of bright pink roots closer to me.
That made sense if he preferred not to remove his mask, but Rhiaon huffed on my other side, flicking the napkin before settling it on their thigh.
“It’s not that he doesn’t like it, Max. Quinzyr don’t remove their entire helmets in front of others who aren’t family unless they’re at home, you know that.
” Rhiaon’s voice was softly accented in a way I hadn’t heard before, almost lyrical, and I was surprised it was different than Rys’.
Their gaze landed on my face as I reached for various plates and put a little of everything, save for the meat, on my own. When I didn’t push for more information, their shoulders relaxed a fraction.
Dinner turned out to be a mostly quiet affair, except for Rys and Greabes keeping up a near-constant bickering at the end of the table.
First about the best type of weapon: plasma or electromagnetic.
Then about whether the females on Venya were more beautiful than the beings on Kyyhr.
By the time our plates were empty and the captain strode back into the room I’d learned Rys had a penchant for quara daggers, a preference for the voluptuous females on Venya, and a love of Haptium music that had Zoleka and Rhiaon rolling their eyes.
Contrarily, it seemed Greabes preferred plasma weapons (namely the blaster on his hip), liked the svelte three-headed beings of Kyyhr, and couldn’t stand music of any kind.
Something about his ears being too sensitive for all that noise.
“All right,” Captain Ruciyah rumbled as he settled at his place at the head of the table. “Are you ready?”
There was a hum of agreement from the crew.
He tugged a silvery octagon from his belt and flung it halfway down the table.
A hologram flickered to life, rotating to show all sides of a planet-like sphere.
A few of the crew leaned forward. Rys’ eyes glittered with excitement, an expression mirrored almost perfectly on Crux’s face, while Rhiaon beside me looked on with a soldier’s attention.
Captain Ruciyah paused for a moment and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
“Then let’s begin.”