Chapter 5
"Do you think Brick's going to be okay?" I asked as we walked.
"Won't be that hard on him," Lily said quickly, only for her to frown and realize that she was thinking something clearly different than myself. She cleared her throat. "Unless there's something else?"
"The gambling ads. And then I was listening to Melgara's explanation. It sounds like he is biologically quite susceptible," I said, now realizing she had immediately jumped to some sort of combat scenario.
"I think he'll be fine. Brick's an adult grogax, and we should trust that he'll be able to take care of himself," Lily said flatly.
I frowned, then nodded. "Of course. I didn't mean to imply otherwise."
"I know.” Lily nodded and let a silence stretch out as we walked through the city.
"So, now that we are out and about, free of everyone else, what would you most like to do?" I smiled at her and tried to jumpstart the conversation. Lily was the kind of person to comfortably default to silence unless I pushed her.
Lily paused, glancing around us. "You've given me a difficult question. Perhaps if you put a few additional parameters on the request?" She hesitated.
I tapped my chin. "Fair. How about this… What kind of store would be the most interesting to you?"
"Would it not be considered a good answer if I said I wanted to go wherever you wanted?" That question caused her to pause, glancing up and down the rows of shops.
"It is an answer, so I suppose I can't be too upset. After all, I did ask the question." I thought for a moment. "We already had a bite to eat, but I'm afraid I don't know much about these people, so I think my current curiosity is simply to see more and better understand them."
All around us, Lily was attracting significant attention. Many passersby were pausing to stare at her. Then again, she didn’t look like anything in the known universe.
More than a few of them had unsavory expressions, and I was once again reminded how lawless this place appeared to be.
"I, too, don't fully understand these people.
And while the ship is being repaired, we may not be aboard the whole time, so it may make sense to find lodging.
If that's the case, we would be able to use any establishment to watch people as well.
" She said the idea like she was trying to guess the correct answer.
"That's a delightful idea. Let's see what we can do without getting into too much trouble." I almost shook my head at her but instead smiled.
"Why would we get into trouble?" Lily asked.
I decided not to give that a serious answer. Staring at her, I knew that if we got into trouble, it was very likely to be because of her. Though, to be fair, I could also make some sort of cultural misstep. I shouldn't put all of the blame on Lily.
"Come. Let's see what we can discover." I offered her my arm, pulling Lily along behind me.
We moved through what very quickly became thick rows of merchants.
I found it interesting how there were very clearly defined pedestrian paths with most vehicles expected to fly well overhead, outside of any of the merchants' hawking range.
Though rather than shouting at us, they had advertisements do that for them.
I found myself painfully aware that there were likely devices listening to our every breath, ready to identify what they could sell us.
Lily produced her captain's stress-o-meter. "You are tense," she said after monitoring it for a moment.
"I don't like all of these advertisements, nor do I like the fact that they're listening to us," I said, the last part pointedly, glancing at Lily. "It makes it hard to have a conversation or talk about anything of importance."
Her face went stiff. She was smart enough to pick up my meaning.
She began glaring at various points along our walk.
"Yes, well. There's nothing that I should do about that, Captain.
I do apologize. Though I believe we are capable of understanding each other should we need to talk and avoid certain words. "
I nodded along, having had much the same idea.
It was comfortable to have Lily with me.
She was so incredibly adaptable, though perhaps if Melgara were with us, she would comment about the neuroplasticity of a race able to modify even their own genetics to the degree that Lily was able to make changes.
"So, how are you liking the trip so far?" I asked, keeping our discussion particularly vague.
"Violet's homeworld is pretty," Lily said quickly like it was a practiced answer.
I glanced at her. "Have you ever been planetside?" It had just occurred to me that if her impact with the ship was essentially the start of her conscious life, then Lily had never actually been to a planet before.
"This is my first, though I have seen much in my genetic memories," Lily confirmed. "I find it to be strange. There are simply too many people."
I snorted. There were a number of statements I thought she was going to follow up her first with, but too many people wasn't one of them. I found it somehow comical compared to everything else she could have said.
"You're right. To be honest, I'm a little uncomfortable with just how many there are," I agreed.
Lily paused and tilted her head. "Would you like me to reduce the number of people?"
"No." I held my hands out quickly. "I don't think what you have in mind is what I would want."
"I hope you don't think I meant I would harm anyone." She squinted, then smirked at me.
I squinted back at her, trying to figure out if she had just made a joke. I stared at her in disbelief.
She gave me a wide smile. "Ha!" The sound came out somewhat mechanically from her. "Got you."
"You got me," I agreed. "Now, who put you up to that?"
"Tiri said that jokes are a wonderful way to build bonds between two people, and it does seem to have worked to a degree.
" Lily's eyes fell to her captain's stress-o-meter before she held it out to me as if to prove her point.
"Your prior stress was at least partially alleviated with humor.
Even our chief medical officer agrees that humor is a wonderful medicine. "
I squinted at her, trying to understand whether the confluence of those two things was an actual misconception or if she was simply trying to be funny. She smiled and continued walking.
"So, a place to rest our heads," I said, continuing down the boulevard as ads flashed continuously around us. I spotted a direction that looked significantly less ad-riddled and made a spur-of-the-moment turn toward it, if for nothing else than to avoid the flashing for a few minutes.
"This does feel more hospitable," Lily commented as we strolled in the new direction.
Though very quickly, as we left the ads behind, the area deteriorated. I’d seen cities like this before where the tourist areas were clean and well maintained, but step outside of them, and the place went to shit.
A moment later, a gathering of men who looked like they were up to no good began whistling at Lily. "Well, what sort of freaky-deaky thing are you?" one of them said, letting out a wolf whistle.
Lily turned to them, her face an impassive mask. "Not something you can handle," she said simply.
That caused a chuckle from the group, and more than a few seemed to be egging each other on. They had some sort of vape that they’d been passing around, and I worried they would be more prone to bad decisions.
I held my hands up. "Gentlemen." I smiled.
The group was fairly eclectic, though the leader was one of the insectoids I had spotted on multiple occasions without knowing what they were called.
If I were trying to describe him, I would say he looked something like an anthropomorphized praying mantis, with what appeared to be serrated edges all along his forearm and spines along the sides of his three-fingered hands that I was almost certain could articulate sharply down to his forearm, bringing the serrated edges of his hands and forearms together in a dangerous trap.
"Well, isn't that a dare, cutie." He stepped up onto a crate, the grin on his face only growing the longer he stared at Lily.
I wasn't concerned for her, but I was concerned for these men who seemed intent on causing trouble.
"Perhaps we could just move on?" I asked, with the kind of smile I hoped could defuse the stickiest of situations.
"Oh, of course, just move on." He smacked his forehead. "Why didn't I think of that?"
I smiled and hoped to turn around; however, Lily didn't move, and I had a very bad feeling as a click resounded behind us. I slowly turned back, a stiff smile spreading across my face as I found three blasters pointed right at me.
"Listen," I said, holding my hands up, "I think you're making a mistake."
"If she comes with us, then there's no problem," one of them said, gesturing with his pistol for her to come over.
Lily was standing rock still as this all took place, then slowly turned her head in my direction. "Captain, my top priority is your safety, and I believe you would be safest if I went with these gentlemen." She said the word as if she meant anything but gentlemen.
If they minded, they didn't show it. They were all simply grinning from ear to ear at her acceptance.
"Lily, I don't think that's a good idea. Even if you can take care of yourself, there are a lot of them," I said, leaving unsaid that the situation would get fairly noisy. I wasn’t at all concerned for her safety, just the potential of law enforcement coming down on us.
"Do you perhaps have lodging nearby?" Lily frowned and glanced at the thugs.
"Oh, lodging, sure we have a hostel down the way," one of them said, while another chuckled. "See? She's a classy lady. She needs a bed." They had a good laugh out of the concept.
"Well." Lily turned to me. "It will be only a moment, Captain. I intend to secure lodging for our crew."