[Baylor]

  “I really don’t know how to act around that girl.”

  He looked at his partner and sighed.

  “I don’t know if there is a way to act around her.”

  The young former slave presented a considerable problem going forward. She had somehow attached herself to both the ship and the larger of the two giants.

  The fact it was the one that didn’t talk just made things worse.

  “The only way I know of to remove an adaptation is to overwrite it with a new one. It’s meant to help our race live on a wider variety of worlds, so it’s not something that just stops.”

  That didn’t even cover how unique the adaptations the girl had developed were.

  Or how difficult to find replacements.

  “There are some cases where adaptations don’t overlap and you can have multiple, low light vision and agility are a good example, but for the most part the re-programing facilities are just places to force a more beneficial adaptation. It’s not pleasant, but it can be better than a life where you’re unsuited to everything.”

  He didn’t know all of the adaptations the girl had, but it was pretty obvious that the low light vision and her lack of territorial-ness were a part of it. Something that wouldn’t really suit life outside this ship.

  “I’m not even talking about that. I am sure she has race specific problems as well, but her personality as a former slave and the disconnect from the real world make it hard to read her. If I don’t pay attention, she feels like a spoiled girl who gets to run her family’s ship. I want to joke and poke fun at her ‘you are beneath me’ attitude, to show her the world can be a scary place outside of the safety here.

  “Then if I slip and make that joke, I’m reminded that she knows that far better than I ever could. That she essentially sees herself as a slave. I can understand why she is so protective of the ‘people’ she sees as her owners, they give her a sense of safety she wouldn’t have if it was anyone that could talk. Or just understood civilization. It must be the best thing she’s ever had.”

  He couldn’t really argue that. Wouldn’t argue it even if he could, Christy was simply that much better at reading people than he was. He suspected that their race had more to do with it than Christy really understood, but the overall view wasn’t bad at all.

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  He listened to her sigh.

  “I just wish those ‘people’, if they can even be called that, would learn to be a little civilized. It can be so tiring to have to cover my eyes every time I see them walking down the hallway. I can’t even figure out why the female stopped wearing a covering after that first time.”

  He could understand where she was coming from.

  He had been through enough to not be self-conscious of his body like that, but even he could admit to feeling inadequate when he saw the male giant. If it wasn’t for the similarities to humanoid species, the sheer size difference would have eliminated that feeling, but watching something that could be a mutilated Canirean lift things in one hand that required machinery for him to move, it forced comparisons.

  “We just have to stay out of their way, that’s all. The girl is the only one that matters. I don’t know how she is making the interstellar drive function, but so long as we can convince her to let us choose where to go, I can handle the rest. I’ve only piloted single person craft before, never anything this large, but the automation should make it easy enough to handle for simple docking and movement. It does mean we need to find a navigator and a mechanic though. I can’t handle star mapping and this ship is far to big for me to keep it running on my own.”

  It seemed like things might go in that direction. The girl clearly understood that she couldn’t handle the ship by herself. He figured that was why she had come to them with a list of crew positions, supposedly ‘copied’ from this Moose person.

  ‘I still need to convince her this Moose doesn’t exist. It could help us bring her back closer to normal.’

  “I can try to convince the girl. She doesn’t seem to like you for some reason, probably that gruff attitude of yours. Though I guess she doesn’t like either of us much. It’s probably the trauma of being a slave manifesting, now that she has a guardian. She seemed to realize the need for others herself, at least on some level.”

  He looked over to Christy when she spoke. It seemed they had the same idea.

  “I will leave that to you than, you’re better with people anyways. I still want you to stay on this ship as much as possible. We don’t need pretty faces for great deals or to be seen as a group. Best just to be me going on stations. I can bring anyone we need back to the ship.”

  He could just find whoever Christy negotiated with and finish the deal or lead them back to safety. The bridge was close enough to one of the docking tunnels that the male giant was basically a gate keeper. The lights not automatically working for the giants worked perfectly for that.

  No one needed to know they even existed.

  So long as they played nice.

  “No, the ship has an internal register. Only the girl can sign for anything official, we aren’t even counted as crew. At best we are seen as third-party negotiators. I understand what you want, but you can’t do everything yourself. Not unless you find a way to register as a crew-member.”

  That upset his plans, but the girl was much more suited to running away than Christy was. She had much better perception and instinct than the Crova.

  ‘I also don’t have as much attachment to her. Between that and the War-beasts following her, she is the best bet for dangerous work.’

  “I guess I can take her with me at the next station. See if you can get her to accept more crew before then.”

  “I hope you know what you doing.”

  He looked into her worried eyes.

  “Yea, I do to.”