Chapter 10
Myrum
It didn’t take long for the crew to forget he was dangerous and start treating him like he was one of them. Within a few rotations, even Helmen lowered her defenses.
This morning marked the true turning point—they all sat down to eat together. He remained mostly silent, soaking up the crew’s banter.
A lot of the conversation revolved around where they’d be docking soon, Tik Station.
It wasn’t a choice; the ship had to go through Ossiso inspection before they were allowed to enter Ossiso-controlled space.
During the inspection they wouldn’t be allowed to stay on the ship, so they’d all have to disembark.
He was looking forward to visiting the station because he was determined to buy everyone a nice meal.
That was the reason he was walking the halls of the ship looking for Amina. Normally he and Ruby stuck to Amina’s side even while she worked. He’d gotten very good at handing her tools and parts based on her pointing and grunting.
This time he’d had to spend a mark filling out paperwork to submit to the Ossiso government since he was the reason for the entire ship’s visit. Very similar to the Talin Empire, the Ossiso Civilization of Souls was very particular about who they let into their space.
“Why would they make this so damn hard to get to!”
Amina’s loud, rhetorical question drew him down a hall to find her legs sticking out from an open panel. There was a bang from inside the wall, then she made a triumphant sound.
“Ha! Take that!”
He crouched down next to her legs and tried to look in to see her, but his view was blocked by various pieces of ship guts.
It was a little disconcerting to see the chaos inside the wall. How did all that work? What would happen if Amina or one of the crew slid a connector into the wrong port? How could they possibly keep it all straight, even with schematics to assist them?
It struck him again how delicate a ship was.
Fragments of memories floated through his head. The sound of micro meteors striking a ship’s hull. Alarms blaring. Fire suppression systems going off everywhere. Screaming.
Amina’s leg bumped into him as she wiggled out from inside the wall. He made himself focus on her instead of the past.
“Who’s there?” Amina asked as she kept moving.
“Myrum and Ruby,” he answered, proud his voice sounded normal. The memories had tried to drag him under and he hadn’t succumbed.
“Oh, hey! What are you doing here?” Amina asked, grabbing the edge of the opening to pull herself the rest of the way out.
Sitting up, she smiled at him. There was a smudge of something on her face, and her normally messy bun was an absolute disaster with half of it flowing in disarray around her shoulders.
“We’re going to be docking soon,” he said.
She pushed a stray tendril out of her face. “I know. That’s why I’m making sure this regulator junction isn’t going to stick when the inspector pokes around.”
He moved his gaze to the opening behind her. “It must take constant oversight to keep a ship running.”
“You could say the same thing about almost anything,” she said. “Gardens, houses, or cargo bots all need maintenance."
He sounded a negative rattle. “That might be true, but when a cargo bot breaks down it’s unlikely that anyone will die.”
“If the regulator junction fails, all that happens is that the ship gets stinky," she said with a laugh. “We wouldn’t die.” Her eyes widened, and she put a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry, I forgot about what happened. I don’t know if this will make you feel better, but outside some really rare events, this is a very safe ship.
Steady might not be a flashy or fast ship, but she’s built to last and to protect her crew and cargo. ”
Myrum was comforted by her words but also intrigued. “This is the first time you’ve referred to this ship as a she. Why would you gender a ship?”
“Why wouldn’t I gender the ship?” she countered, taking her hand off his leg and patting the flooring between them. “We give them names and learn their quirks. They are the most important part of the crew. Of course they have names.”
“Who picked the name Steady?”
“Cousin Sansta named this ship,” she said, then shook her head. “I think. Or maybe she named Yorlik’s ship.”
“As long as Steady knows she’s important, I guess it doesn’t matter who named her,” he said.
Amina gave him an approving look. “Exactly!”
She started gathering the tools and parts scattered on the floor around her. “Are you excited about visiting Tik Station? It’ll be nice to be off the ship for a little while.”
That reminded him of the reason he came searching for her in the first place.
“I want to take the crew out to a nice meal,” he said. “Could you tell me if there’s an establishment they’d favor? I’ve never been to Tik, and there isn’t any information about it on the ship’s UniBase, so I couldn’t find out if there are any places that serve Ugarian food.”
“That’s a great idea,” Amina said, getting to her feet. He stood up also and grabbed the tool bag and parts bucket before she could. “None of us have been to the station either. It only opened last year. We could all decide together. It’ll be a great bonding experience.”
He didn’t like this idea. He’d been raised to think asking others to help coordinate something meant it wasn’t a gift, it was a burden. He already felt guilty about asking Amina for guidance.
He sounded a questioning rumble. “Are you sure?”
“This’ll be fun,” she said. “We’ll all get a vote and then eat at the place that is most popular. Besides, nothing can be as bad as Hulg food!”
He sounded a rumble of amusement. “That’s true, although I’ve heard Ollie food isn’t very appetizing unless you have multiple stomachs.”
“Doringo food can be hard to eat too, since we don’t have a gizzard full of stones to help us grind up bones,” she responded with a giggle. “I’m looking forward to it. It's almost always fun to explore a new station.”
This was the perfect opportunity to warn Amina about an aspect of Ossiso culture.
“What do you know about Ossiso beliefs?” he asked.
“Not much,” she admitted, guiding them to the right when they got to a T intersection. “I’ve never done a run into their sector. I know a lot about Porians and Massocs though. Do you want to give me a quiz?”
He sounded an amused rumble. “You can tell me all about them later. Right now I think you should know that the Ossisos have some interesting thoughts about who has a soul and who doesn’t. Free will is considered extremely important to them.”
“Like the Delorta,” Amina said. “They don’t approve of slavery because a slave can’t add weight to their soul and become a star after they die.”
He didn’t know much about Delorta, even though some of the outer reaches of the Talin Empire bordered their space.
“I didn’t understand that at all, but you can explain that later too. It’s important you know the Ossisos believe if someone is a slave they’ve forfeited their soul. If you’ve ever been a slave you can never get your soul back, even if you’re freed.”
Amina frowned. “Do they treat the soulless differently?”
“Horrificaly,” he said. “Ossisos think anyone who finds themselves owned shouldn’t even be acknowledged..”
“That’s not good,” Amina said with a shake of her head. “We need to ask Helmen to have your collar removed.”
Myrum reflexively touched his neck, running his fingers over the thin collar. He’d forgotten it was even there.
“That’s not why I wanted to warn you,” he said. “The Ossiso Civilization of Souls and the Talin Empire have been involved in intense cultural and diplomatic exchanges over the last few solars. Because of that, the Ossisos might have certain, uh, beliefs about humans.”
She cast him a confused look as she ducked into a room. He followed her to find himself in a tight space full of shelves laden with boxes. She started putting tools and parts away.
“What belief would the Ossisos have about humans?” she asked.
Myrum really didn’t want to talk about this but knew it was necessary. “They might think most of you are slaves. If anyone disrespects you, I’ll make sure they know you're free and have always been free, but they might see us together and make some assumptions.”
She put the last items away and turned to face him. “What assumptions?”
“Just some assumptions,” Myrum said. He really didn't want to tell her about the humans kept as pets by Talins. Even though he saw humans as equal, finding out some humans within the Talin Empire were truly owned might make her despise him.
He couldn’t have that. No, it was better she never found out!
“Whatever,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “Let's go find Helmen and get permission to take your collar off. I don’t want anyone being mean to you because they think you don’t have a soul. Slavery is bad enough to begin with, but it sounds like the Ossisos are looking for an excuse to be mean.”
She grabbed his hand and led him out of the storage room. She pulled him down the hall, her stride short and fast. He lengthened his own to keep up with her furious pace.
“Helmen should be in command,” she said, turning another corner. For such a small ship, Myrum found it easy to become disoriented.
Soon they were walking into the small command room.
There were only three seats, but one of them was piled high with items and the control panel in front of it was in parts.
Desur was kneeling next to it, his face so close to a section his forehead was almost touching it.
He and Helmen were the only ones in the room, and both of them looked up.
Desur gave them a pleading look. “Amina, tell Helmen this unit can’t be saved please. We need to replace it.”
“Let me see,” Amina said, letting go of his hand and crouching down next to Desur.
Desur pointed to a spot Myrum couldn’t see. “It looks like the main terminal leads are all burned out. We could fix it, but we’d have to pull the rest of it apart.”
Standing up, she faced Helmen. “Desur’s right, the better thing to do would be to remove it. Then there’s nothing to inspect, right? You’ll still have a redundant control panel, that’s a minimum standard.”
Helmen sighed. “I was really hoping it was fixable.”
“We’ll get it completely refurbished,” Desur said. “After we finish in Ossiso space.”
“Fine,” Helmen agreed then looked at Myrum. “You shouldn’t be in here.”
Her words were firm but not harsh. Amina jumped up and put herself at his side before he could respond to the captain's comment.
“I brought him in,” she said. “You need to take his collar off before we dock at Tik.”
The tips of Helmen’s ears folded. “Why do I need to do that?”
“Because the Ossisos don’t like slaves,” she answered. It wasn’t entirely accurate, but he didn’t correct her. “The Ilgorian Federation doesn’t have a trade or travel treaty with the Ossiso, so we need to tread carefully, right?”
“Yes, you're correct,” Helmen agreed, obviously not happy about it. “I really regret taking this assignment.”
“Ah, don’t be like that,” Amina said. “After this is all over we’ll get drunk and laugh about all the minor things that went wrong.”
Helmen’s ears pricked up, an Ugarian sign of surprise or disbelief. “Minor?”
“Did anyone die?” Amina asked.
“Not yet,” Helmen grumbled, then looked over to Desur. “Have the tools ready to take the collar off but only when we’re about to walk off the ship. I’m not giving trouble any extra chances.”