4. Fostering #4
Her family was together again.
Eventually, she stepped away, straightening her back, and shifted back to the ship officer again.
Jere smiled over at her as she stood against the wall. "I missed you too, Rey," he added, his grin still ever present. Reyna nodded, but didn't stop the smile on her face from being seen.
Reyna took a look at Jere's pack as he picked it up from the deck where it had fallen during the hug.
Reyna could see it wasn't very full. Then, in Jere's movement to put the pack back on over his shoulder, Reyna saw the strap catch against his frame, and noticed just how lithe he looked, especially for someone coming off a six-month research posting who was outdoors in the field all day.
She didn't say anything right then, but twenty minutes later, when their group were walking through the corridors toward the quarters after getting Jere setup in the Emberkind systems, she fell back half a step and tapped a quick message on her datapad to Borran.
Carrothi’s aboard. Please make the grain cakes and whatever else you have available before you meet him. It’s clear he hasn't been eating.
By the time they had settled Jere into his quarters, Borran had a full meal waiting in the galley. Once they arrived, Jere looked at the spread before him and then looked over at Elena.
"Don't look at me," Elena said with a laugh. So Jere instead settled his eyes on Reyna.
"Borran cooks when people arrive," Reyna said simply.
Jere stared at her for a long beat. Finally, he uttered, "Okay," stretching the word out for emphasis.
Good, no arguments.
"This is Borran," Elena said, gesturing toward the Brontari behind the counter. Jere turned to look up at the seven foot man that closely resembled that of a Grizzly Bear from the planet Earth. "He's the Emberkind chef. Been here longer than any of us have been alive," Elena stated.
"Nice to meet you, Borran."
"Eat," Borran ordered from his place behind the counter.
Reyna had decided that Jere didn't need to know she had prepared Borran, and Borran, when he met Reyna's eye over the counter, had the good sense not to contradict her.
They spent the next hour enjoying Borran's meal, talking and laughing and commiserating together over Coalition burdens just as they had done at Novahall.
Reyna's cheeks actually hurt from all the laughing.
That, or they hurt from the sheer act of laughing again at this frequency since they were altogether last. Either way, it was a good feeling, and Reyna had missed it.
As they were finishing up, both food and stories, Elena broke through about the whole purpose Jere was here.
"The cargo hold," Elena said, watching Jere closely as his eyes widened at the prospect of all their work ready and waiting for him. "Are you ready to see it?" Suddenly, Jere couldn't speak, so instead he just nodded his head, rising from the counter with Elena and Reyna.
They all walked together, through some of the corridors that hummed with beginnings of construction and past crews installing new conduits and environmental systems. Jere was completely silent through it all as they made their way closer to the cargo hold.
Reyna glanced at him twice but said nothing, only admiring his whimsy as Elena told him all about what the cargo area and the plans they had for the modifications based on their work, where they were in the process, and how much longer they'd be docked for the refit.
Jere just stayed silent, a silence Reyna understood of taking everything in to process it at conversational speed.
She'd felt it too during her first time walking through the refit and seeing the foundation of what they were building.
Then the moment had come where they arrived, and Elena made a big deal of creating a moment where she dramatically opened the cargo hold doors in front of Jere.
"Feast your eyes, Jere!" Elena exclaimed, her smile shining off of her like a beacon.
Reyna felt the awe from the dramatic reveal herself, and even if she'd seen this hold all day long for months at this point in preparation, her awe was still genuine.
As she looked through the hold, she remembered what had once been a cavernous, empty space, and what it was working toward now as a full transformation.
She looked over all the dividing walls that were going up, each section being for different atmospheric conditions, temperatures, and ecosystems. It had just been last week when the environmental control nodes lining the ceiling had been installed and began their process to turn over the vegetation systems, organic water filtration, and natural temperature adjustments to become its own functioning regulation system.
Reyna had overseen every stage of the build up to this point.
She would continue doing so, but would now have Jere by her side to help with all the needs going forward.
He was the quality checker, and Reyna felt as though she was in the best hands, not to mention that her own meticulous style would ensure they worked cohesively towards the final goal.
Reyna knew every conduit, node, and structural compromise she and the crew were planning in order to fit Elena's vision inside the ship's aging frame.
She knew where the budget would probably need to be stretched and where engineering would need to be creative.
Jere stood in the doorway, not speaking, while his eyes moved across the massive entry to the entire hold.
She saw him staring at the areas waiting to become forests, deserts, wetlands, and oceans, all in miniature, of course, but still fully functioning.
Reyna watched his throat bob in his neck and noticed how his eyes were bright, making him blink once, and then again. Then he turned directly to Reyna.
"Rey, do you know what we could do with this?" He said tenderly. And suddenly, she didn't trust herself to answer as she watched his emotions display so clearly on his face. So, she just nodded.
And then, a switch was flipped and he was off, walking through the almost-finished habitats, talking faster than anyone could follow, the ideas pouring out like they'd been stored within him for six months and the bottle had just been busted open.
He started talking about all the species they could house, what ecosystems they could replicate, all the rescues they could assist. He touched the walls, the nodes, and the empty spaces where parts of the self-regulating system would grow and change and maintain.
Reyna knew he was already seeing the creatures in every corner of the entire hold, listening to the sounds of them wherever he turned.
"We could sustain a whole reef system in this section alone," he said, spinning in the center of an empty enclosure.
"And here, look at the ceiling height! Hells, Elena, we could do canopy species!
Arboreal! They need this kind of vertical space in order to—" He stopped, catching sight of her and Elena, and looked intently at both of them. "You're staring."
"You're spinning," Reyna said with a soft laugh.
"I'm excited."
"You're going to walk into a wall," Elena said.
"Well, that's half of why walls exist. To ensure you don't cross into spaces that aren't meant for you.
And, sometimes, to walk into while having important thoughts.
" He grinned at them both before turning to Reyna.
"Rey, thank you," he said, reaching out his hands for Reyna's.
She gripped his fingers and her eyes softened.
"It wasn't built for us," she said.
"It was built for them," he said, finishing her sentence as he turned his gaze to look out over all the habitats.
He said it simply because that is exactly what it was: simple and straightforward.
It would always be for the creatures that deserved every chance they could still be given to survive and thrive.
The refit took a total of fourteen months to complete.
Fourteen months of construction crews, supply runs, and arguments with the Coalition about funds and budget.
Fourteen months of watching the cargo hold on the Emberkind completely transform, section by section, from the empty cavern it was into the living center of the ship.
Jere was there with them through all of it, his expertise shaping every enclosure, every atmospheric zone, every water filtration system that would sustain the creatures.
By the time it was finished, the Emberkind was something completely new.
No longer was it the Coalition's forgotten cargo hauler, but now, an intergalactic animal rescue vessel.
The habitats were fully operational and Elena had spent the better part of the last six months hiring the crew to ensure it grew to meet the mission.
They were one week away from the first displaced species arriving, the final environmental seal being tested.
Jere cried and he would never deny it. But Reyna and Elena would be in the next millennium before they admitted they cried, too.
Jere never told them he had the footage.
The years that followed were good ones, in fact, the best Reyna had known.
The rescue missions became routine in a way that felt extraordinary because every single day they were meaningful, urgent, and woven into the rhythm of daily life, saving creatures from extinction was what they did on a normal Tuesday.
The three of them fell into a pattern that fit like Novahall all over again, but in a formal capacity.
Elena excelled at leading and commanding the ship as its Captain. The entire crew loved and respected her, and you could feel the energy throughout the entire vessel of energy and capability flowing, all through her leadership.