Chapter 50
Chee
The hull was full of boxes and boxes of animal furs.
Chee and Goldie stood together at the railing of the second floor, looking below as the guys brought the boxes in, one hover at a time.
Each hover could fit about four boxes, two on top of two.
They weren’t terribly heavy, but they were big enough that the regulations of the station wouldn’t allow more than that to be stacked together.
Since there were so many, all of the guys were working together to move them in.
Rok and Vytln were doing most of the heavy lifting, while Sway, Sorbet, and Tebros moved the hover carts.
Tanin was helping both teams, but mostly he was planning and directing.
They were stacking the boxes five tall in the storage bay, as they weren’t bound by station regulations, but they still needed to be able to move through them to get to the landing ramp and the side storage rooms.
They were stacking boxes, but strategically. Chee was watching over the whole thing, wondering if they were willing to take constructive criticism, because she had thought of about three ways to improve their system already.
But mostly she was waiting for Trove.
He was going to get his claws fixed. He told her that he wasn’t sure how long it was going to take, just that it would take ‘some time’.
She was anxious for him to return. She asked if she could go with him, but he’d insisted that she stay here. It would just be him lying in a bed until his claws were fixed. There was really nothing special about it, he said.
But even if that was his stated reason, Chee got the impression that he wanted to go alone. He wanted to face that moment, to face the scars of his past, by himself. There was strength in that.
Still, she wished she could go with him. She wanted to be there. She wanted to see his claws and celebrate them with him.
However, she also understood the need to face your past. To try to stand equal to it. And she couldn’t deny him that, even if she wanted to stand there with him.
So, she hung back and watched the other guys work as Goldie hummed a song she didn’t recognize.
“Do you have earbuds in?” Chee asked, seeing something shining in her ear.
Goldie, to her surprise, blushed, as she reached up to touch them. In doing so, she moved her hair back, allowing Chee to see the almost jewel-like earbud in her ear. It was a piercing that she had turned up and put in her ear. It didn’t look weird though; it looked like it was designed to do so.
“Alred made them for me,” she said, touching it like a girlfriend showing off a piece of jewelry. “It’s so he can talk to me without everyone else hearing.”
“Sexy,” Chee smirked.
“Not like that,” Goldie protested, her face pink.
“Why not?”
“He doesn’t feel desire like that.”
“But you do.”
Goldie shook her head. “It can’t be like that between us. And it’s okay. Even if this is all we ever have, I’m happy with this. Just this.”
Chee smiled back at her. “He’s playing music for you, isn’t he?”
She started. “How did you know?”
“You were humming.”
“I was?”
Chee laughed. Goldie just continued to blush.
They were cute. In a really weird way. Chee didn’t think she’d ever be able to give up sex like that.
Especially now that she had experienced it.
But Goldie obviously loved Alred enough that, to her, it didn’t matter.
But hopefully, if they were successful in getting Alred a body, Goldie wouldn’t have to surrender that intimacy either.
“Hey, Goldie. How long does it take claws to regrow?”
“Hm? Oh, there are multiple different factors.” Goldie looked up as she thought. “The age of the injury. Whether there’s any cells left in the matrix to recreate the germinal layer or if you have to convert already differentiated cells into-”
“You’re losing me here, doc.”
“I’m not a doctor,” Goldie shook her head.
Chee popped a brow. “Aren’t you? Seem pretty doctor-y to me.”
Goldie bit her lip, not really accepting the title but not fighting it either.
Instead, she just said, “All the cells in your body are already differentiated into their specific purposes. But technically, they also have all the DNA needed to be any other cell type. On Earth, we have no way of de-differentiating cells that have already specialized, but medirings can. It just takes longer. So, if his nail matrix needs germ cells, they’ll have to essentially create them.
Then, there’s the process of actually growing the nails itself.
That will honestly be the fastest part. But you have to be careful, because the energy and resources for that growth is still coming from your own body. ”
“Which means…?”
“It means that if, say, someone had to regrow an arm, they could do it, but you’d need to provide them with all the calories, minerals, vitamins, etc that all make up an arm.
You can’t just grow it out of nothing. The basic components still have to come from somewhere.
Luckily, claws are pretty simple. They’re just keratin, basically, so that won’t take much. Hopefully.”
“Okay, so the time frame I’m looking for here is…?”
Goldie thought for a moment before shrugging. “Anywhere from half a mark to two marks? Depending on how good their healer and machine is.”
Chee frowned. “How long has it been since Trove left?”
“I don’t know. When did he leave?”
“He left with Tanin when he went to go inspect the shipment.”
Goldie frowned with her. Because that was easily two marks ago.
The inspection and claiming process had taken time as it was.
Then, they had to get the storehouse workers to bring them a couple hovercarts, then they had to start bringing the boxes.
The storehouse wasn’t exactly right next door.
They had a decently long walk to get each load.
“Trove should have been back by now,” Chee said, standing straight.
“Well, maybe not,” Goldie frowned. “It could just be taking them a while.”
“Tanin!” Chee grabbed the rail, calling down to the captain who was watching as Sorbet led the next hovercart up the ramp.
He turned, looking up at her with a frown. “What?”
“Where’s Trove?”
“Getting his claws repaired.”
“I know that, but how long does that take?”
“Ask Goldie.”
“I did! She said it shouldn’t take more than two marks.”
Tanin turned to face her fully, a scowl pulling at his face. And she could see the same thought coming to him as well.
It had been more than two marks, easily.
So, where was Trove?
“Goldie,” Trove called up to her. “Get Alred to check the station.”
The healer blinked before nodding. She paused, and Chee could see her listening to her earpiece, to whatever instructions Alred was giving her. He wouldn’t talk out loud while they were docked like this and there was a chance that someone could hear him.
Chee nervously watched as Goldie went to the wall and opened a panel.
From inside, she pulled a cable that she then tossed over the side to the waiting Sorbet.
The scaley male didn’t seem to need any further instruction, because he dragged it out, down the ramp, and into the station itself.
Chee lost sight of him, but she figured he was plugging Alred in somehow.
Goldie returned to her side, frowning. “Are you okay?”
“I just… I’m fine,” Chee nodded firmly. “I’m sure he’s just taking his time.”
“But…?”
Chee bit her lips. Unable to really explain her unease.
Because she knew Trove. As much as she wanted to see his claws, she knew that he wanted her to see his claws. He would have come here to show her first. To let her touch and feel them before anyone else got a chance.
If he was going somewhere else, he would have told her. And if he wanted it to be a surprise, he would definitely have told Tanin. Their captain didn’t let anyone go anywhere or do anything that he didn’t know about. His iron control kept all of them out of trouble.
So, if Tanin didn’t know where he was, then…
No, Chee was sure it was fine. Maybe the healer was just really slow.
Maybe the mediring they were using was old or glitchy or something.
Though, even as she had that thought, she knew it wasn’t the answer.
No one used ‘glitchy’ medical equipment, especially not medical equipment with the ability to literally rewrite DNA.
The seconds passed by painfully slow. She gripped hard on the railing, waiting with clenched teeth for some kind of news.
It was nothing. She was being paranoid. Everything was fine.
Goldie tilted her head. Listening to whatever Alred was saying in her ear.
Her face pinched.
Chee’s heart sank.
“Where is he?” She asked.
Goldie bit her lip.
“Where is he!?”
The metal rattle of Tanin climbing up the stair ladder to the second floor was like broken glass rubbing into her nerves. Their captain came to stand between the two, looking at Goldie expectantly. The woman shifted her weight before shaking her head.
“Alred says he can’t find him on any of the surveillance monitors of the station. He’s definitely not in the healing center, and he’s not on any of the paths that would take him back here.”
Tanin’s quills twitched as he moved to the railing. He called over-
“Sorbet.”
The dark blue male looked up silently.
“Get Tebros. Find Trove.”
Sorbet grunted and, without further question or hesitation, turned and jogged off the ship. He was gone in a moment and still not fast enough for Chee’s liking.
Where was he?
How was he just gone?
“Come with me,” Tanin ordered.
Chee and Goldie both obeyed. They fell in behind him as he went into the ship and made his way up towards the bridge. Past that, into the captain’s room where he maintained control over them and the entire ship.
“We keep beacons on us,” he said. “We activate them in case of emergency. Alred.”
“I’m not seeing his,” he said from above, speaking only into their room. “I can’t reach it unless he turns it on.”
“His combot?”
“No response.”
Tanin grunted.