Chapter 2
Ifound myself within the bowels of the ship, working tirelessly for Brick.
It wouldn't be right to call him a taskmaster, I was working on my own ship after all, but it would also be inaccurate to say he was anything less than demanding of perfection.
Perhaps it was part of being a grogax, better able to control his level of exertion at any point in time.
It made him seem like he had endless stamina, and he seemed to expect the same of everyone else.
"Captain, I just want to say once again… thank you." Brick pushed himself out of a panel he’d been half submerged in. Insulated wires had been neatly wound behind him.
I turned and smiled at Brick. I knew exactly what he was really trying to say. "You're the best man for the job, and that's all there is to it," I said.
"Still, I worked for the VDF for years, and they didn't let me get anywhere near this close to the real jobs on the ship," he told me.
"Well, I'm pretty sure we've already established that the VDF were idiots. I mean, did you see four ships couldn’t even beat one," I said with a chuckle.
"Be that as it may… thank you." Brick bowed his head toward me.
"Well, if you really want to say thank you"—I grinned at him—"maybe redistribute some of this work." I bobbed my eyebrows suggestively, and Brick avoided my gaze.
"Captain, I've finished rewiring two more conduits," a bulbous form off of Lily's mycelial network reported as it dropped down between us both.
“Oh, you have her doing some of your list?” Brick tried and failed to sound surprised.
I suddenly squinted at Brick, who couldn't meet my eyes, and realized that my list was also supposed to be Lily's list. He was just unable to ask Lily directly, on account of the fact that he was absolutely terrified of the woman. I couldn’t hold that against him, given that most people considered meeting her species the equivalent of death.
"Thanks, Lily," I said with a smile. I supposed, as captain, parsing out the work was partly my job, too, and this fell under that category neatly. "While you're at it, could you get Tiri to move some of the supplies?" I said.
Brick quickly started to shake his head.
"What?" I asked the grogax.
"She's tiny," Brick said in response, as if that made it okay for her not to do some of the hard labor the rest of us were doing.
"Did you see some of the aftermath of their fight?" I looked at Brick. "I really don't think you should be underestimating the two kikai."
"Well, she's a lady and a noble merchant. She's probably not used to hard labor." Brick still scowled at me and looked away, a faint blush coming across his face.
I frowned at Brick.
"Message passed along," Lily said. She had no compunction with sharing the workload. In fact, if I had to guess, she was more than happy to make everyone else work as hard, if not harder, than herself.
"Hmm. Would it be better if I sent Violet after a few of the tests?" I asked Brick, testing to understand his real objective.
"Oh yeah, Violet should do the job just fine." He nodded.
"She is just as small, if not smaller, than Tiri." Now it was my turn to squint at him. Both kikai were barely over five feet tall.
"It's different. She's a warrior," Brick argued, though the statement fell on deaf ears as I just stared at the man, a slow grin spreading across my face.
"You like Tiri, don't you?" I asked, unable to help myself.
"She's a kikai. She's like a quarter my size," Brick sputtered and was completely and utterly unable to meet my eyes.
"Uh-huh. She's also green," I said.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Brick frowned at me.
"I don't know." I shrugged, holding my hands up in the air. "She's green, you're green. I thought it might at least be a little interesting to you."
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Brick was so obviously interested that it was killing me not to tease him further.
"Well," I said, pausing for a moment and staring him directly in the eyes, "if at any point you need a wingman, just let me know."
"Wingman?" Brick asked, and I rubbed my forehead. "Yeah. If you find yourself interested enough in someone to make a move and you need… oh, I don't know… someone to distract Lily for you."
"Oh. Oh." Brick nodded along, understanding what I was putting down. "Of course. If I need someone to be my wingman, I will look for you first. But part of that is that you are the only other man here."
The statement kind of landed like an insult, but I was also fairly certain Brick hadn't meant it that way. The man just wasn't exactly eloquent with his words. In fact, he was just a little too blunt, but you kind of wanted that in an engineer.
"Of course, Brick," I said, clapping a hand on his shoulder, only for Brick to chuckle.
"Honestly, I don't know if I could ask for a better wingman. No one else could distract Lily."
"I'm glad you think I'm so competent." I smiled.
Brick tilted his head. "Of course. Then there’s—" He gestured around, suddenly pursing his lips without speaking what he meant.
"Yes?" I said, genuinely interested in understanding what he was trying to say. I looked around at the ship.
"You know—" He rolled his hand while his eyes tried to convey something I wasn’t picking up.
Before I could say anything, Lily spoke first. "I do not know, and I would very much like to understand what it is you speak of, Brigax. It would be helpful if you finished your sentences."
I turned to look at her. Why had she pulled out his full name? I frowned at Brick, and he quickly began shaking his head. The bulbous object that had been near us twisted around its sensory organ, trying to get a better read on us.
“Your heart rate has increased drastically since I have entered this conversation," Lily stated.
"Why are you keeping track of my heart rate?” Brick asked.
"I find it is a good way to measure the captain's stress if I do not have my device on hand; thus, it was the captain's heart rate I was monitoring. Yours was only being picked up secondarily. I meant nothing by collecting your information, for it has no value to me."
"Thanks," Brick muttered, sounding more confused than anything else.
"No thanks are needed," Lily replied curtly. "However, if you do wish to show thanks, please continue with your explanation as to what you are trying to convey silently to the captain. I, too, am interested in this information."
"Lily, it's fine," I said. It was clear that Brick was uncomfortable with whatever direction he had been planning to take the conversation.
"Fine; however, this does concern your health, Captain. I do believe it pertinent that we do not allow his silence for too long. If you wish, I can extract the information?" Lily asked, and beside me, Brick began sweating bullets.
"Yeah, Lily, we're going to put a pause on extracting information from crewmates, please. You should treat everyone as precious to us," I told her with a sigh.
"As you wish, Captain," she said, and Brick gave me a relieved smile after hearing her words. "However, when it concerns the captain, there is no such thing as going too far, especially if it is to ensure his safety. I hope you understand and comply, Brick."
"Lily, that's enough. We'll drop the topic, and it's just going to have to be something for later. Whatever it is, Brick is clearly uncomfortable having the conversation with you around. It might be a guy thing." I decided to bail out and save Brick.
"A guy thing?" Lily repeated with much confusion.
"Yeah," I nodded and glanced at Brick, who began nodding along with me. "There are some things, now and in the future, that you might have to recognize are something a man just wants to talk about with another man and might be uncomfortable discussing in the presence of a woman."
There was a long pause from Lily. "If it would make things better, I could alter my genetic makeup to become male for this particular conversation," Lily said, only to pause. "There are some strange readings on your heart rate, Captain," she said.
"Let's just say, Lily, I would very much like to ask you to not make yourself a man." I tried to keep it together, but I had a feeling that was failing against her readings.
"I sincerely apologize for the suggestion. It seems it has caused undue stress for you." Lily sounded genuinely apologetic.
"Not stress." I hesitated, picking through my next few words very carefully. "It's just that I have very little interest in being in a relationship with a man. Also, I’m not entirely comfortable with you changing your biology so much on a whim."
There was another long, pregnant pause where I would simply have loved to understand what was going on in Lily's head.
"Understood. I have begun removing the DNA samples that would potentially cause such a change in me in the future. This was a productive understanding," she said, like the effort was no big deal.
“Uh. Thanks, Lily. If you let me finish up here, then after a shower, let’s rest up together,” I offered. We should probably talk about this, too. We’d been having a lot of pillow talk.
“At once.” Lily’s sensor organ vanished so fast that it left me blinking at the empty space.
"Captain"—Brick put a hand on my shoulder—"please never leave us alone with Lily again. On an unrelated note, how are the two of you? I can’t help but notice she’s moved into your quarters." His eyes looked at me as if he were begging.
"Lily and I are getting along wonderfully," I reassured Brick, as he let out a very relieved sigh.
"Yes, of course," he breathed out. "I didn't mean to imply otherwise." Sweat began to bead on his face and drip down.
"The captain and I are in a very happy relationship," Lily preened from above and reminded us that it was impossible to avoid her gaze here on the ship.
"And one that I wish will be long and joyous for both of you." Brick nodded.