Chapter 17
Nova
After spending a life wearing either costumes or old uniforms that weren’t fit for the crew to wear any longer, Nova couldn’t stop petting the front of her new shirt. It was the softest thing she’d ever had.
The scooped neckline exposed almost as much shoulder as Miran’s giant shirt, which she found a little amusing. It had to be deliberate because any warrior they passed would always look at her neck first before meeting her eyes.
Did the Hissa have a neck fetish?
Miran finished neatly stacking all her choices in the largest storage locker in his room, then turned to face her. “That should last at least a few days.”
She chuckled. “Can we wash things on this ship, or do we have to wait until we’re docked at a station?”
He pointed to a hatch in the wall she hadn’t noticed before. “You can put any garment, including shoes, in that. But don’t put different types of garments in together or the machine gets confused. For example, don’t put shoes in with shirts.”
She stepped over to the hatch and opened it to find a small depression.
She’d never seen anything like it. The circus workers on the Delight always cleaned their outfits by hand when they were in the bathing area.
She knew machines like this existed, but this was the first time she was seeing one in person.
“Oh, fancy,” she said and looked around for her old costume. Grabbing it from the floor, she shoved it into the unit and closed the door.
“You don’t need to wash that,” Miran said. “It’s old and worn out.”
She ignored him and frowned at the closed latch. “How do you activate it?”
He stepped close to her. “It’s automatic. Right now it’s sensing the cloth type, soil level, and if it needs to be sanitized or not."
She snorted. “It probably needs to be sanitized twice.”
“The machine will know,” Miran said, then put an arm around her and guided her out the room’s door. “What would you like to see first?”
Feeling the need to move, she did a couple of bouncing steps ahead of him. “Are there any open areas? I think I’d like to do some stretching and tumbling.”
“I know the perfect place,” he said. With a teasing expression, he picked up the pace and rushed past her.
With a laugh, she easily caught up and jumped on his back, then scrambled up until she was sitting on his shoulders.
“I’m all powerful!” she said in the deep booming voice she’d perfected for when she helped Plosia with her One Against the Gods short play.
She’d gotten to play the voice of a vengeful god.
She’d had fun with Plosia and only wished they could’ve performed that play more often.
The problem was that many species didn’t like to watch morality plays so they only got to do it once or twice a year.
Thinking about Plosia and the circus made her curious about the Hissa.
“What do you do for entertainment?” she said, resting her hands on the top of Miran’s head.
He didn’t respond right away. Had she asked something painful?
She leaned over until she could see his face. “Miran?”
He gave her a smile. “I’m trying to think of an answer. Our entire species has been in survival mode for so long that I’m not sure any of us think about fun things.”
“Do you mean because of the Great Death?” she asked.
“That was almost the end of us, but only the beginning of our troubles. We found dimmerion on our moon about the same time as the Great Death. While we were dealing with a species wide catastrophe, we were attacked by several other species who saw us as an easy target. We spent years at war teaching them that we refused to give in. Our home solar system is very well guarded now, and we have an excellent military. No one but the Kaklans dare challenge us, and we’ve defeated them at every turn. ”
“I should give you a hard time for not telling me about the Great Death,” she said.
He sucked in a breath. “I didn’t? I’m sorry.”
“Nisha explained it to me,” she said. “You lost so many people. I can’t imagine how devastating it was.”
“It was bad, but it helped to have a species-wide purpose; find a way to keep ourselves from dying out,” he said, patting one of her legs.
“I can see where that leaves no time for fun,” she murmured.
“I think we might’ve turned training into our fun,” he said. “We’ve created all kinds of games around both physical and mental training.”
“That’s logical," she agreed. “But that means you guys don’t read books, watch shows, or attend theatre?”
“I remember visiting a theatre in one of our cities when I was a child. I don’t remember what the play was about, but I loved the lyrical way all the people on stage spoke. It was as if they were talking in song, but there wasn’t any music.”
She was intrigued. “Are there any recordings? I’d like to see them.”
“Yes, but probably not in the ship’s database,” he said. “I’ll ask around and see if anyone has a personal recording.”
“I’d like that,” she said, then ducked down so he could walk through a set of doors. Inside was a large space with about half of it taken up by stacks of crates. The rest was mostly open with a few pieces of exercise equipment near the center.
She unhooked her legs from his shoulders and dropped backwards, doing a quick flip to land on her feet. To her delight, the floor gave a little and had some bounce to it, similar to one of the stages on the Delight.
“This is great!” she said, then cartwheeled away from Miran. It felt good to move, and her ankle wasn’t bothering her at all.
Halfway across the open area, she paused briefly to gauge her space. She did a few hand springs, then landed the last one with a little hand flair.
“That was amazing!” Miran said.
“Can you show me how to do that flippy thing?”
Both of them turned to see several warriors standing in the far corner of the room with an open crate on the floor next to them.
Miran frowned, but Nova was thrilled at the idea of teaching someone.
“Sure, but you might not learn it all at once,” she warned them.
“I want to learn too,” the other warrior said, following his friend across the room. The third one followed, also looking eager.
After the warriors rushed over, she glanced at Miran. “You don’t want to learn?”
He shook his head. “I already know I don’t have the balance for it,” he said, then gave the warriors a warning glare. She almost giggled at the way he stepped close to her and put a hand on her shoulder, as if claiming territory.
The three ignored him.
“My name is Hifor,” the one who asked first said. He pointed to his companions. “This is Lezor and Belik.”
“Hi, I’m Nova,” she said.
“We know,” Lezor said. “You were on the Assist and helped save all those children.”
Mention of the kids made Nova focus on Lezor. “How are they doing? Are all of them reaching their expected milestones? Are the menders being gentle?”
She must’ve sounded more anxious than she meant to, because all the Hissa frowned with concern.
“Our menders would never be anything but gentle with the children,” Hifor said.
“The last report said the children were doing well, but two of them might need extra attention,” Lezor said.
Nova blinked rapidly, feeling teary at the idea of any of the children being even slightly neglected. “Everyone is so busy, I could help with the two that need more assistance.”
Miran hugged her from behind. “We’re going to make sure every single child gets everything they need to thrive.”
“Even if they’re male?” she asked. “After they’re old enough, are you going to cast them out?”
All the warriors sucked a horrified breath, then spoke at once.
“Never!”
“Why would you think that?”
“They’re Hissa now, no Hissa is ever cast out!”
“We aren’t like that,” Miran said, the most sympathetic tone to his voice as he whispered in her ear.
He knew why she was upset and wasn’t as horrified by her question as the others.
“Our species will never be pure Hissa ever again, but all species need to change and adapt or die out. We’re going to raise these children with Hissa values and that’s more important than anything else.
What happened to Star and you would never happen with us. ”
Those words reassured her more than anything else he could’ve said.
Although the other circus workers had accepted and loved her, Riff had made it clear from the very beginning that if she didn’t earn her keep, she’d be sold.
She’d grown up with the idea that if she wasn’t useful, she would be discarded.
Unlike her, these kids would never know the terror of having a bad performance day and going to bed crying because you didn’t know if you’d be sold to the closest slave trader the next day.
“Nova?”
Miran’s soft voice pulled her out of her spiral. He’d gone down on his knees in front of her and was holding both her hands in his. She’d been so badly sucked into her thoughts, she didn’t even notice him moving to touch her.
“Sorry,” she said and tried to smile. “I’m good.”
“You’re crying,” he murmured.
The moment he said something, she felt the tears trickling down her face. She pulled one of her hands free of his to wipe them away.
“It's only that I’m so happy the children won’t be thrown away because they aren’t exactly what you want,” she said, trying hard to smile. “I might be a little emotional. A lot’s happened in the last few days.”
“That’s true,” he said, his expression and voice nothing but gentle. “Do you want to go back to the room and rest?”
The thought of being confined to a small room sounded horrible. She wanted to move and play.
She shook her head and looked around. The three other warriors started moving away as if to give her and Miran privacy, but that was the last thing she wanted.
“Don’t you guys want to learn how to do a flip?” she asked, pulling away from Miran.
“Only if you want to,” Hifor said and the other two nodded.
“Yes! Let’s have some fun,” she declared.
After about an hour, Belik managed a full flip. The other two groaned, and Hifor collapsed on the ground.