Chapter 55 #2
“And how are we doing that?” Trove asked, popping a brow. “Our ship is destroyed, their ship was destroyed, we can’t contact anyone, and no one knows where we are. At least on Rik-Vane, we had the ability to communicate.”
“We don’t need to communicate. We have everything we need.” Tanin leaned in, hands on the table. “We are getting out of here on our own. We’re going to build our own ship.”
The entire table went still. Trove frowned and shook his head.
“Er, captain,” Sway started slowly, “We’re not starship mechanics. I mean, Vytln and Haven are good, don’t get me wrong, but building an entirely new ship from scratch…”
“We’re not building one from scratch. We’re recycling one from pieces.” Tanin crossed his arms. “We have an entire hangar, many kilolengths long, filled with broken, decrepit ships. None of them in nearly as bad a condition as the Humility was when we first got it.”
“That’s… probably true,” Vytln said slowly, thinking about the line of old starships just sitting out in the hangar.
Waiting for their turn to be broken down.
And an entire starship recycling facility completely at their command.
Sure, it was designed to dismantle those parts, but it wouldn’t take much for Vytln to take all those same tools and systems and use them to rebuild instead.
The Humility had basically been a death trap when they first got it.
The thing had such terrible life support systems, they’d all needed to live in their envirosuits because it went out randomly and frequently.
The food synthesizer had been barely functional.
The subspace crystal suite had been so close to death, they flirted with never getting out of subspace with every swing.
Vytln had helped repair that ship from the ground up. He’d practically rebuilt entire parts of it. And he hadn’t had access to dozens, hundreds, of other starships to cannibalize and an entire recycling facility to put it together.
“It’s not impossible,” he finally said, voice slow and cautious.
But hopeful.
“I know it’s not,” Tanin said. “And we’re going to do it.
We’ll build a new ship. Exactly how we want it designed.
With everything we need for ourselves, our mates, and our younglings.
And when it can fly, we’ll go back to the debris field we left behind, and we’ll find our subspace crystals and rebuild our generator so we can get out of here. ”
That also wasn’t impossible. Subspace generators were extremely sturdy.
The one Haven used to blow up Kldyn’s ship was probably destroyed, but theirs had a very sturdy casing and hadn’t been overloaded since it was a bomb that destroyed their ship.
The generator casing was almost as good as the shelter room.
It wasn’t impossible to think that it survived the Humility’s explosion.
It was a goal. A path forward. It was… exciting.
Vytln had always been limited by the Humility. What he could do with it, what he could add onto it, had been strictly determined by what the ship could handle.
But if he could design a ship how he wanted it…
He could have a proper workroom with his private room attached right to it. A proper place to build a well designed and large trap for Haven. A place for their youngling to play with a heat source that wasn’t directly radiating off the engine.
And he wasn’t the only one. He could build a human friendly, fully functional, expanded medbay for Goldie.
He could design a proper captain quarters for Tanin and Garnet.
He could include a playroom for their younglings, since there would be more coming, as well as a proper rec room.
A proper galley. A weapons control room for Trove.
A training hall. Storage for their jobs.
A shelter room with actual flight ability.
And a lot of tight spaces and secret halls for Haven to move around the ship. Places for her to secret herself away, to crawl and get into things safely.
There was so much he could do. Ideas and plans and dreams he’d only once briefly considered but always immediately discarded. He was not the type to want what he couldn’t have, or long for the impossible.
But if it was all suddenly possible…
“I can do that,” Vytln said, sharing a smile with Haven.
“We can get started today on initial design plans. We’ll need to go through the ships in storage, see what we have and what we don’t have.
We’ll also need to clear a space for the build itself.
We’ll have to test the systems to make sure they work as intended, and retrofit those that need it, but we can do that. ”
“We can!” Haven agreed, nodding eagerly. And he saw the same fire of excitement burning in her eyes. He could only just imagine all the plans and ideas she had for their ship. He couldn’t wait to compare it to his and incorporate them together.
A ship built just for them. Not a secondhand piece of trash they barely kept flying and spent a fortune renovating into something moderately comfortable. A tailor made vessel, suitable just for them and all their needs. A real, permanent home.
Yes, he realized, the thrill of what they were doing rushing through him. It was going to be a lot of work; he had no illusions about that. But it would be worthwhile. And with this entire facility at their control, it would be more than possible.
They’d lost everything, but it wasn’t the first time. There wasn’t a person at this table that hadn’t sacrificed their entire life for one reason or another. All of them had been stripped of everything, lost it all, left it all, or had it all taken away. But they’d rebuilt from absolutely nothing.
Compared to that, they had so much here. They had an entire facility, they had so many supplies, they had power and food and a steady air supply.
And most importantly, they had each other. He had his crew. A real family at his back. One that would never turn against him. One that would never try to steal this life away from him.
These were his brothers smiling at him as they began discussing their own ideas for what they could build and create in a ship all of their own.
This was his mate that leaned into his side, eyes sparkling with possibility and curiosity.
And as he watched them all get excited by this next task, this next goal, their captain had set before them, Haven’s tablet chimed.
She picked it up and tapped on it-
And immediately let out a gasp, her eyes starting to water as she whipped her head down to look at Alred’s core.
“What is it?” Vytln and Goldie asked at the same time.
“Alred!” She declared loudly. “He’s alive! He’s still in there!”
Goldie burst into tears as everyone else cheered. A satisfied smile crossed Tanin’s face as Goldie grabbed onto Alred’s core and squeezed him tight.
His family, whole and complete. Sure, a little broken, but they were always a little broken. And they were okay. They were going to be okay. They were going to rebuild.
And they’d come back. As they always did. Better and stronger.
He pulled Haven into his side, kissing the top of her head as she wrapped her arms around him. She and the other females were crying again. Relief and joy and celebration filling the mostly empty room. All the possibilities of their future spread before them.
His future, his family, his everything, seated right at this little table. Squeezed in his arms. Building in his mate’s belly, right under his hand.
Because really, Vytln hadn’t lost anything. His entire world was perfect.