Chapter 4
Amina
“This is unacceptable!” Helmen admonished Amina as she rushed onto the ship through a small side door instead of the main entrance.
“Of course you’re here instead of the main entry,” Amina grunted as she pulled on the hatch to shut it manually.
The controls on this door were old, and sometimes it would get stuck halfway.
Opening and closing it manually meant no-sticking and no potential delay because they had to repeatedly cycle the control unit.
Helmen reached past her and easily pulled the door shut. Amina didn’t envy the Ugarian’s bodies very often, but at times like this she wished to be that strong.
She faced Helmen with a big smile. “I’m sorry I’m late. It won’t take me long at all to do the system checks. I promise we’ll be ready to go before we’re even cleared by traffic control.”
“I’m not worried about that,” Helmen said, her ears focused on Amina. “Our passenger hasn’t even gotten here yet. I meant you can’t go off on your own. You told Desur you’d be next door at the snacks shop, but then you wandered off before he got there. He was so scared when he couldn’t find you.”
Guilt hit Amina hard. “I sent him a message.”
“All you said was that you’d meet him back at the ship. Do you realize how frantic he was when he got back and you weren’t here?”
“I got back here perfectly fine, only a little late,” Amina snapped. She hated that she’d done that to Desur, but really, it was Helmen’s fault. “I don’t need a babysitter every time I leave the ship. If you didn’t have that stupid rule, none of this worry would’ve happened.”
Helmen’s ears snapped back so fast Amina could hear them slap the back of Helmen’s head. “Leave it to you to make this all about you! No one is supposed to go anywhere alone. Desur is your friend, cousin, and crewmate. How dare you abandon him! How would you feel if someone did that to you?”
All her annoyance and defensiveness wilted at Helmen’s words. “Ah shit. I’m sorry, Helmen. Where is Desur? I want to apologize to him.”
Helmen’s ears relaxed, and she rubbed a hand over her face. “I know you’re not as fragile as you look, but I need you to remember that anyone can be hurt, including you or Desur.”
“But especially me,” Amina said. “It just makes me angry that I’m judged by others because I’m human.”
“So many things make you angry,” Helmen shot back. “You raged at the grav-inhibitor yesterday. I walked in and you were yelling at an inAminate machine as if it was sentient. Maybe it’s time to start working on that.”
Amina shot Helmen a smile. “I’m positive that cussing at machinery helps to fix it.”
Helmen let out a sigh. It was a sound Amina was familiar with. Her cousin was feeling defeated, and it was Amina’s fault.
Stepping close, Amina put a hand on Helmen’s arm. “I’ll work on it, I promise.”
That was the right thing to say because Helmen perked up. “Will you join me tomorrow for chanting?”
Helmen was a practitioner of harmonic theory. It was a life philosophy that emphasized calmness and clarity. There was a series of chants practitioners were encouraged to perform daily. Amina tried it once years ago and hated it, but she was desperate to make amends with Helmen.
“Sure,” she agreed, trying hard to sound eager. “I’m assigned to engine one for the first shift, so it’ll have to be after that.”
“Certainly,” Helmen agreed, her ears relaxed and forward. “I’ll send you a chant to memorize.”
“Great,” she said, then remembered the snacks she’d bought. Digging into her pockets, she pulled out a few bags. “Here, these are for you.”
“Oh, my favorite!” Helmen exclaimed, grabbing the bags from her.
Amina chuckled. “I know, that’s why I got them. Where’s Desur? I got some for him too. Maybe he’ll forgive me if I have a bribe.”
“He’s not angry, only worried about you,” Helmen said. “He should be in the tool room, logging in the spare parts and making sure the catalog matches.”
Amina nodded. “I’m going to talk to him, then I’ll start doing my check. I promise if we’re delayed, it won’t be because of me.”
Helmen’s information square chimed. She pulled it out of her pocket and checked.
“Our passenger is finally here. I need to show him around and give him a safety briefing.” She raised her gaze and pinned Amina with a hard stare.
“Try to stay out of sight. It’ll probably be easier if we can make the trip without the Talin knowing a human is on board. ”
That wasn’t going to be an issue. Unless this new arrival was Myrum, Amina wasn’t interested in meeting them.
“That shouldn’t be hard,” she said with a little shrug. “The trip there is only a few days. I’ll be working most of that time anyway.”
“Good,” Helmen said, then hurried away.
Amina set out to find Desur. He was in the tool room, sitting on the floor with small boxes and packages spread in a circle around him while he held an information square checking things off.
He looked up, and his expression went from relieved to hurt. “You left me.”
Why did he sound like a kid who’d been forgotten in an eatery on a trip to the city? Desur might be her age, but he seemed much younger.
“I’m sorry about that,” she said, then sat down on the floor facing him. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
“I thought you got bored because it took me so long to bargain for everything we needed,” he said, his ears drooping with dejection. “I rushed to get back, but you weren’t here. If anything had happened, it would’ve been my fault.”
Those last words were soft and accompanied by a sniff. Ugarians were one of the only species that cried like humans.
She’d really scared and hurt him. It made her look forward to chanting with Helmen because she deserved to suffer!
Amina scooted closer. “No, Desur. If anything happened to me it would be my own fault. You’re perfect, and I abused you.”
His head shot up and the tips of his ears drooped even further in confusion. “What?”
“We were out there to help each other, and I let you down,” she said, seeing the entire situation clearly.
As much as Desur was protecting her, she was also protecting him.
Helmen knew Desur wasn’t a fighter or good at bargaining.
She should’ve stayed, had it out with the shopkeeper, then helped Desur get all the parts.
Instead she went off on her own the moment she could.
“I don’t think I got a good price,” Desur said. “I spent too much of our wealth, and I lost you. I failed at everything today.”
“Only because I failed too,” she countered. Pulling his packets of treats out of a jacket pocket, she set them down between them. “Next time we’ll succeed together instead of failing separately.”
“I like how that sounds,” he said, grabbing one of the bags and opening it up. Tilting his head back, he dumped half the contents into his mouth. He made all kinds of happy sounds as he chewed, his mouth comically full to the point his cheeks puffed out.
Amina laughed. “I won’t ever leave like that again,” she promised.
Both their information squares chimed in a way that said everyone needed to finish pre-launch duties.
Getting to her feet, Amina smiled down at Desur. “Time to get to work. Want to play a game of domie after the evening meal?”
Desur gave her a fast, eager wiggle of his ears. “Yes!”
Feeling much better, Amina left the room to start her duties. She was going to spend the evening either chanting with Helmen or losing domie to Desur, but those were small prices to pay for making them worry.
Heading down a corridor, she heard Helmen talking. She was explaining the ship’s emergency systems in a worst-case scenario. To stay out of sight, Amina ducked down a different hallway that would get her out of Helmen and their passenger’s path.
A black dot caused by a mismatched fastener on a floor plate made her think of bugs. Bugs made her think of Ruby.
Of course that reminded her of Myrum.
She never would’ve given him her contact information; she wasn’t used to trusting anyone but family with information. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t have gotten his.
Why didn’t she ask?
She doubted he lived on Polkor Station, but maybe he was on a different station or outpost and she could’ve tried to visit.
No, that was dumb. He probably lived within the Talin Empire. She might be confident walking around a Hulg station, but even she knew better than to waltz into Talin territory and think she could get back out.
It was probably for the best that she didn’t know how to find him. It was too dangerous, and she didn’t need that temptation.
“It’s fine,” she mumbled as she slipped into the monitoring room for engine one. Teshor was probably in engine two’s monitoring room. “I’ve got everything I could ever want right here.”
Why did those words feel so hollow?
Letting out an aggravated huff, she forced herself to focus on her job. “Hello, engine one. You’re going to run perfectly today or I might start using all the best cuss words on you. You’ve been warned.”