Chapter 26 #4
When we made our way upstairs, Araxis was eager to show me the new bunks, which were just as efficient as before, although some had been expanded.
He walked me through the room intended for the children, which had a nest-like bed as they expected.
The quarters for Evreni, Yalrinn, and Avelthe had been reworked so that there was ample room for three as well as a comfortable looking chair for Avelthe; Araxis pointed to the very particular acoustic dampeners he'd had installed to help with Avelthe's sound sensitivity.
Araxis had considered everything. In fact, as I did the math on how many creche-mates we now had and how some of the rooms had been combined, I was surprised to realize that we had just enough bunks.
Next to me on the walkway, Araxis trilled as he realized I was counting.
"Yes," he said, pleased, "it is fortunate that we have the right number, including one for a pilot, once we find a new one.
I had anticipated having more empty space, but you have done a fine job in growing our creche, Sashen.
When I tell you that you are a treasure, I recognize that the endearment is entirely insufficient – but I hope you are able to hear it nonetheless. "
I shrugged as if hearing that didn't make me flush with pleasure, as if I didn't notice each and every time he complimented me. "I mean, how could I show up to Xitera without an entourage, right? And I maybe have a line on a pilot. I've got a friend looking into it. She's confident."
Araxis blinked, studying me. "Your human friend?"
"Yeah, Val is pretty well-connected. I mean, you've seen that firsthand. And she's basically the founding member of the Sashen and Araxis Fan Club. We should know either way by the time we head out."
The look on his features had to be pride, it had to be, which was as disorienting as the first time I'd looked out the window of Alet Trident's ship and saw Seraphim vanishing into the distance, a new horizon open before me.
"In any case," I continued, brushing past the feeling, "it'll be weird to be on the ship and actually see people. I really thought you might have hallucinated basically your whole creche when I first arrived."
Araxis trilled, and I ran my fingers through my hair, a little nervous as the meeting with the Unbound ticked closer and closer.
And maybe a little off-kilter here in the well-lit hallway: they were familiar bones, but a new face.
And while it didn't mean much to me technically, I listened as he ran through the new systems they'd had installed, which Egnax had apparently been overseeing in exacting detail.
"She sends me at least six paragraphs each night," he confessed as we stepped into the helm.
"Last night, she told me all about the problem with the screws the install crew used to anchor the panels here.
" He tapped them; as far as I could tell, they were little hexes, unremarkable and nondescript.
"She said, if there were an explosion, these ones might sheer off, although she admitted that, in the case of an explosion on the helm, we are likely to have more significant issues than casing panels coming loose and causing a tripping hazard when wires fall to the floor. "
"Speaking of explosions, where are the Maelstrom engines?
" I asked, peering around. I didn't know much about them, except that they were dangerous and frightening and supposed to be very beautiful, the mechanisms that allowed a ship to slip into the subspace dimension that rippled throughout the galaxy.
The storm roiling all around us, all the time, just a few inches out of alignment with our mundane layer of reality.
I hadn't seen them on the second floor when we'd gone digging through the ship's systems. I was sure I'd have noticed: they were always incredibly obvious on dramas, massive glowing beacons that bathed everything around them in otherworldly light.
Araxis planted one foot on the pilot's chair and pushed himself upwards, reaching for a ceiling panel. With a flick, he unlatched something and the panel swung down. I stepped in closer, blinking upwards and saw –
"Uh," I started, squinting. "Look. I don't mean to question your business acumen, but –"
He beamed down at me, nose crinkling with amusement.
"Our ship is very small, Sashen, and the technology has improved a great deal.
This is our Maelstrom engine: it provides enough of a bubble for us to burn.
" Above his head was what looked to be a tube about the length of my forearm and only a little broader; inside was a glowing, roiling blue liquid, moving in waves and ripples as if pulled by some invisible tide.
Which, of course, it was: this was a sliver of the Maelstrom brought back into our dimension, and like remembered like.
It was enough of a tether to subspace that it could take us along for the ride, so long as someone knew how to bring us back out again.
"And is it… safe?" I asked, suddenly nervous.
Every drama I'd ever seen had some long, terrifying sequences about the Maelstrom engine nearly exploding and killing all life on a nearby planet, or pulling someone apart on an atomic level, or sucking their consciousness into the Maelstrom and leaving behind only a withered husk of a body.
It seemed like a dangerous thing to have right there above the pilot's head, which was also very close to our bedroom.
"It is much safer than a larger engine," Araxis assured me, carefully latching the panel back in place.
"Egnax has been exacting with every possible fitting.
This will exert minimal strain on our pilot and minimal strain on the ship.
Travel by the Maelstrom is never pleasant, but it will be efficient, at the very least. We've had an additional shuttle installed on the ship with the same model. "
Right, that made sense. Dramas always had episodes where the crew got spit out of the Maelstrom in the wrong place and had to send a shuttle to try and locate civilization or go and get help.
"Alright, show me how you cannibalized my room," I said, not wanting to stand beneath the engine any longer or to think about what it might be like to be dragged through the underbelly of space and time.
Araxis obliged, leading me through the doorway into what used to be his quarters and into our new suite beyond.
And sure, it might have seemed a little small compared to the palatial room we had on Sozamia, but it was still –
"Did you actually take three rooms just for us?" I asked, casting a look at him.
Araxis shrugged with one shoulder, flushing silver. "I thought it would be nice to have a comfortable space. And a larger shower."
I chortled, taking it in. He'd gone for a much more normal bed, instead of the concave type we had now, which was still the bane of my existence when I had to crawl out in the morning.
There were shelves anchored to the wall between the windows, and a curved couch where you could sit and watch the stars flash by.
A series of cupboards formed the back wall, and Celravi's tapestry – the one of Sadri and Indiva – hung on the interior wall next to the door back into the raised hallway.
I stopped, staring at it; right next to it was a smaller tapestry, pale except for threads of black and brown woven through.
"Oh," I breathed, studying the familiar tapestry more closely; I'd seen it in his room before. "Is that a shroud for Inniral?" It reminded me of the one I'd seen Nilli of Creche Athal working on for her deceased spouse.
"Yes," said Araxis as he came to stand next to me. "It – Perhaps it is rather grim. Does it bother you?"
"Of course it doesn't bother me." I leaned over to kiss the side of his mouth.
"There's not really anyone I miss from my childhood, so maybe I can miss people from yours instead.
I can love them because you did, and because they loved you.
" And it was stupid to say, it was stupid, and I immediately wanted to crawl out of my skin, but Araxis just turned to look at me in the softest, gentlest way, reaching to touch my face with his cool hands.
"I would like that very much," he said, thumb stroking the line of my jaw. "I would share all of the best things from my life with you. They are yours, beloved."
And what could I say to that? What could I give him in exchange?
So instead of trying to come up with anything while my throat was tight and my nerves still sang with the anticipation of a dangerous meeting, I just smiled and kissed him again before I broke away to inspect the hygiene room, hidden behind a sliding door set into the wall of cupboards opposite the bed.
As far as hygiene rooms on spaceships were concerned, it was absurd. I was pretty sure it took up the space of the entire third room he'd rolled into our own suite. The shower sat at the outer wall, the window directly in the middle.
Although the most ludicrous part sat next to the glassed-in shower. I looked over my shoulder at him. "You're ridiculous," I said. "You are indulging me."
"You've often commented on how much you enjoy being in water," Araxis said by way of an explanation for what had to be the most ostentatiously thoughtful thing anyone had ever done for me. "And there is a separate heating element so that you might adjust the temperature to your liking."