Chapter 23
TWENTY-THREE
MARIA
A shudder ran through the ship, the couch cushions translating the vibration in a soft hum, as the picture of Earth I had painted and hung up on the wall rattled like someone had slammed a door particularly hard.
"What was that?" Leija asked from the view screen from where she lounged on a carbon copy of my design, just with red cushions that showed up beautifully behind the gold shimmering silk-like pantsuit she had on.
I'd designed and manufactured a large, cozy couch that I had set back at the perfect distance for movie nights, or for chatting with Leija.
I loved hanging out with her, and we had regular hangout dates in person, but sometimes it was nice to chat from the comfort of our own spaces.
"You felt that?" I asked as I slid off the couch. I went to the door, which opened up into the hallway. Lyrien wouldn't 'enter' my private suite unless I invited him in, so I stepped out into the hallway where I knew he would see and hear me easily. "Lyrien? Is everything okay?"
"We are not under attack," Lyrien said, his voice tense and short. "But there was a collision."
"What kind of collision?" I asked.
"One caused by bad manners," Lyrien replied, his tone still curt. "I need to focus on this."
I waited for a moment, then went back inside to talk to Leija.
As much as I would like to know what was going on, Lyrien had earned my trust to the point that I would wait for him to sort out whatever was going on without insisting on immediate details.
If it was something I could help with or if it put us in danger, he would let me know.
Once he could focus on talking to me, I'd have the whole story.
"Lyrien said that something collided with us, but it wasn't an attack," I said, informing my friend of the situation, as I slid back onto the couch, happy about the way the fabric felt soft and supple against the bare skin of my legs.
Leija enjoyed designing clothing, as well as dressing other people, so she had me trying out new outfits all the time, which was fantastic.
I was so sick of boring clothes, and as fun as it was to wear no clothing, it was even more fun to have Lyrien peel me out of outfits..
Eun had set up an entire design studio for her with both replication of the types of earth machines she was used to using, as well as some other pieces of alien equipment for working with fabrics.
The most recent outfit she made me was the one I had on.
It was a comfortable slip of a dress that had huge splits up the sides.
"He said it was caused by a collision, but whatever is going on is taking up his attention so that is all I know. "
"Do you think it is another Vaurelcar?" Leija asked as she leaned towards the viewscreen. "If that other one you ran into had humans on it, they could have convinced it to come after us."
"That's... entirely likely..." I picked up my cup of as close to coffee as I could get on an alien ship in space and took a sip of the rich, sweet liquid. "The shudder was a lot like the time we attacked it, but more gentle from what I recall. It could be stray debris, though."
"Lyrien has been flying around in space his whole life," Leija pointed out.
"He isn't going to just run into random debris.
Besides, we looked at the stuff that Eun is going to have to install to become space worthy, and there are a whole lot of sensors he has to incorporate and get used to using.
Debris doesn't just sneak up on them. I bet it is that other Vaurelcar.
If I woke up on a recently freed sentient spacecraft and found out there were humans on another one, the first thing I would convince it to do would be to chase after it. "
"Maria?" Lyrien's voice called out from the hallway.
"Come in!" I replied.
I didn't really need the control over the space or the sense of privacy anymore, but I still appreciated it. Given that Lyrien could see, here, and control everything on board, having a section of space that felt entirely mine was a psychological comfort.
A wall panel slid back on the wall next to the door, and white tendrils were on display.
Usually, Lyrien used a holoprojector and overlayed the tendrils, creating an image of his core body stepping into the room, but this time, he didn't. He must still be distracted by what was going on.
"There is something I need your help with," Lyrien said, his voice coming from the wall of neurofilaments.
"Is it the other Vaurelcar?" Leija said from the viewscreen. "With humans on board?"
"What?" Lyrien replied, surprise in his voice. "How did you know that?"
"An educated guess," Leija said. "How many humans are there on board?"
"I'm not sure," Lyrien said. "The other Vaurelcar, his name is Tanlarc, he is the one we freed before we met you.
He is not forthcoming at all. He must have been captured young because his manners are nonexistent, and his speech patterns are brusque.
He came charging up at us and just latched onto my hull without even a basic introduction or thank you for rescuing him. "
"Does that mean I can go on board again?" I asked.
"No!" Lyrien replied, far too quickly. "We aren't connected. Stabbing into him like I did last time is an attack, and he didn't do that; he just grabbed me, like this."
One of his neurofilaments reached out from the wall and wrapped around my forearm, holding it firmly but gently.
"Family groups cluster together and travel like that all the time," he said. "It's just rude to touch people like that when you don't know them well. It's well... needy. I don't like it."
"Poor guy," Leija said. "Raised as a slave and the first Vaurelcar he meets that frees him is creeped out by him."
"Tanlarc's needs, whatever they are, don't get to override Lyriens," I said. "But I want to know how I can help. Do you want me to talk to him?"
"Yes," Lyrien said. "I can send him a connection to your view screen and..."
"Group chat!" Leija insisted. "Don't leave me out just because I'm stuck in here."
Her voice was cheerful, and I knew there was another layer under that positivity. She had mentioned once that she blamed herself for Eun's current state, and that self-blame made her accept her current situation a lot easier.
"Group chat it is," Lyrien said.
A few moments later, the screen split, but instead of another Vaurelcar, someone else appeared.
She appeared to be a human woman, with a large mass of tangled red hair, wearing a grey long-sleeve shirt and leggings.
"What the fuck!" she shouted, yanking her hand back and to her chest, her unkempt red hair bouncing with the sudden motion.
Another woman stepped into view, her eyes widening as she saw us.
"Wow, those outfits are amazing, full on Space Queens," the other woman on the screen said, her dark brown eyes reflecting surprise as her soft, plump lips pulled up into a delighted smile that framed her strong accent. Then her smile turned into a frown. "Who are you?"
Her hair coiled around her face, framing gorgeous skin the color of barro negro vessels handcrafted using ancient Zapotec techniques, accented in sharp contrast by a woman standing next to her whose freckles wouldn't protect her from a sunburn if she stood out under a light cloud cover, even if the huge floof of her red hair would give her some sort of shading.
Both of them were wearing what looked like grey long johns, with sleeves that ended in points up to their knuckles.
Both of them had dark circles under their eyes.
"This dress certainly does make me feel like a Space Queen," I said. "I'm Maria, and this is Leija. She designed the outfits. Are you okay? You're on the Vaurelcar who just got free?"
"The what?" the redhead said. "What is a Vaurelcar? How are you able to design outfits?"
"Who are you talking to?" a woman's voice called out from out of sight.
"I don't know, it just turned on!" the redhead said.
"I'm Adesewa," said the black woman. "This is Saoirse. Where are you on the ship? I don't recognize you from the holding cell."
Several other women crowded around the two until the screen was filled with women's faces.
"Is that coffee?" someone asked. "Is there coffee on the ship?"
"What I wouldn't give for a couch," someone else said. "All we had were hard floors and exercise machines! Why do they get couches?"
"We're not on your ship," I said. "You're on a different ship, a Vaurelcar. Hasn't Tanlarc told you what is going on?"
"Who is Tanlarc?" Saoirse asked.
"Your Vaurelcar, the ship you are on, his name is Tanlarc," I said.
"Tanlarc? Can you hear us?" someone shouted in the background. "Open the door!"
"We have not heard from anyone named Tanlarc," Adesewa said.
A cheer went up from behind her, and she turned to look back over her shoulder.
"Huh, the door opened," Saoirse said.
"Thank you, Tanlarc!" someone cried out.
"I'm going to mute the channel for a moment. I've let Leija know to keep talking to them," Lyrien said, and then the sound cut off even though I could see their mouths still moving.
"What is going on?" I asked. "Is Tanlarc not talking to them?"
"I am at an impasse with him," Lyrien said.
"He won't let me take any of them on board, not unless I take everyone, including the surviving Calicium, which I will not do, especially since he is not explaining why he has left some of the Calicium alive.
He also is refusing to speak to the humans directly, and won't say why. "
"Are they in danger?" I asked.
"He said that he won't hurt them and he will keep them alive," Lyrien said after a pause. "Though he clearly has some things he needs to learn about caring for the needs of others."
"Can you convince him to keep traveling with us?" I asked. "He can let them all off at a space station in Shek’invitali territory, right?"
"He has agreed," Lyrien said. "He also wants you to talk to the women for him."
"Okay," I said. "Unmute the channel, please."
"Tentacles?" Saoirse said. "Like an octopus?"
"Octopus is delicious in okra soup," Adesewa said. "With some ground crayfish and Iru."
She let out a sigh of longing and licked her lips.
"Sugar, I'm so famished for something other than bland cubes, I'd try that in a heartbeat," someone else said. "Though if I had to pick, I'd rather have a hamburger."
"No, like.... oh, I don't know how to describe this," Leija said, waving both her palms at the screen like she could wipe away the image of an octopus being boiled.
"Like the entire ship is made of movable fibers...
I'm not really sure on the details myself, I just thought it was hair until Eun had a full growth spurt on me. "
"Ladies, if I can interrupt," I said. "The Vaurelcar you're on appears to be shy. He's asked Lyrien to ask me to speak to you for him."
"Shy?" Saoirse said, her eyes flashing as she scowled back at me, her sunny smile all of a sudden turned into thunderstorms. "We've been kept in a cage, and he is the one who is shy?"
"We're not in the cage now," someone added to the conversation.
"How do we convince him to talk to us?" someone else asked.
"I don't know," I said. "From what I understand, he has been a captive for a lot longer than you, not that it is a competition; it is just why he likely isn't very communicative. I would be careful about touching his neurofilaments if you see them. They can be sensitive to skin contact."
"If we give you a list of what we need," Adesewa said. "Can you ask him to provide it for us or show us where something similar is on the ship?"
"Yes," I said, grateful that someone was focusing on what steps were needed to move forward. "And in the meantime, Tanlarc has agreed to travel with us. I'm hoping you'll be able to disembark at a space station that is in an area of space that is safer for humans."
"You're hoping, but you don't know," Saoirse said.
"You're riding inside another living being that I have no control over," I said. "I can't say for certain what he will do."
"Your mate?" Adesewa asked. "Who is your mate?"
"So apparently," Leija said, interjecting with a grin. "You can marry a spaceship. The ship you are on is biological, not artificial."
The women on the other ship all went silent.
"It's a person?" a voice in the back gasped. “Oh no.”
The video cut off.