[C]She had finally figured it out.

  ‘Kitty was right all along! It really was magic.’

  She had worried that Kitty wouldn’t understand the need to be quick and efficient. That wasting time would cost them a lot of money for the docking fee. That worry had turned into a different concern when Kitty had shown disdain for what she called ‘small thing games’.

  Games such as ‘proper trade paperwork’ and ‘contract negotiation’.

  ‘We might be small, but the ships are still big. She wouldn’t be any more able to break out of prison than me…..

  … Right?’

  At the very least, even if Kitty could break out, she probably wouldn’t come back for the ‘silly small things’. It made the negotiations tense in a way she hadn’t thought about. She had been so worried about Kitty popping out of the shadows and demanding things from the officials that she hadn’t cared a bit about the difference in status. It was still a harrowing experience, but she didn’t need to get nervous about talking to higher-ups.

  ‘It’s probably fine. Even if Kitty forgot me, I am sure that Moose would get me out.’

  Such a confident thought had surprised her at first. Why would Moose even care? But the more she thought about it the more it made sense to her. Kitty might be all over the pce, but Moose was calm and supportive. He had brought her onto the ship and let her earn her keep. If she suddenly disappeared, he would surely question things.

  ‘Granted, He may never be able to find me if he needs to rely on Kitty for information.’

  She had resolved to learn the rumbling that Kitty and Moose both used. She knew she would never be able to speak the nguage, it was far too deep for her body, but she could at least take orders and commands directly from Moose. She even knew a couple of words already!

  Sure, one of those words was her name, but everyone started somewhere!

  She fortunately never had to test that confidence. Kitty had stayed quiet and the negotiations had finished quickly.

  Well, no……

  Kitty wasn’t ‘quiet’, she was simply ‘not there’.

  Not that she could see at least. It had been very difficult to follow Kitty’s movements when they had been on the station the first time, but she had assumed it was because her focus had been elsewhere. During the negotiations with the station staff, she had spent most of that time looking around to make sure Kitty didn’t ruin things.

  As far as she could tell, Kitty may as well have simply left them there.

  She didn’t see a single trace of the woman.

  Kitty’s absence had given her mixed feelings at the end as well. When the Crova summarized what happened and told her how the contact had been handled, she really would have preferred to make Kitty deal with that.

  Being told that two new people would be joining them and that they would be there for an undetermined amount of time set her fur on edge. She was uncomfortable with the very thought. She even would have said no and taken a much smaller payment, just so she didn’t have to let these outsiders onto her new home.

  But it wasn’t her money.

  Moose had sent her and Kitty to trade. He wanted them to make a deal and do their best. She expected it of herself as well. If dealing with these people would get Moose a better deal, she would simply swallow her aversion. If she wanted them gone sooner, all she had to do was trade off the new cargo as fast as she could, right?

  Her decision had been correct. Everything had been worth it, bad feelings and all.

  She got a pat on the head and a nice rumble. Something of a smile on Moose’s face.

  It had set all her insides squirming and the most pleasant fuzziness bloomed through her. Even her tail stopped listening, going back and forth for so long she worried it might fall off. It validated every decision she had made and set her goals for the future. Kitty was right. She had told her, shown her the obvious truth and simplified it to a single word…

  It was magic, there was nothing else it could be.

  ‘I should have listened the first time. I wonder how much I have missed out on for dismissing those other spacers I thought were crazy.’

  There was a momentary twinge of regret at what could have been, but she let it pass. The only thing that mattered now was finding more things that Moose wanted. Finding anything that might get her another pat and the coveted rumble. The ‘good girl’ that rattled her ears and gave her tail a will of its own.

  She had pestered Kitty for as long as it took to learn what that rumbling meant, even going so far as to forget to be afraid. That rumble took over her life. It was in her dreams, it filled her days with a desire to find it again, it even gave her courage she probably shouldn’t have.

  “Eep! Why are you naked!?”

  Her ears flipped down.

  Her mood couldn’t always be high though. She still very much didn’t like the feelings these invaders to her home set loose in her. A feeling she had never expected to associate with anything.

  Something protective and possessive.

  Something hers.

  “Moose doesn’t like cloths.”

  Such an obvious thing. Moose never wore anything. Kitty clearly learned that well before she showed up. After going for a time without wearing anything, now even she was starting to agree. Clothes weren’t made for her, they were uncomfortable. While Moose could just ignore what everybody thought and do what he wanted on account of being himself and Kitty clearly could just vanish and didn’t seem to have any shame to begin with, she still felt the shame of being seen. She wouldn’t go to poputed areas or dance around naked in front of everyone.

  But this wasn’t a poputed area.

  This wasn’t in front of everyone.

  This was home. Her home.

  She wasn’t about to let these invaders change what she did here.

  “That’s--. You--. This is highly unusual. I clearly need to speak to this Moose!”

  ‘NO! They’re not allowed to see Moose!’

  The feeling of rejection and her fur bristling happened so fast she surprised herself. Deeply ingrained habits are hard to break though. Her thoughts might be her own, but it didn’t mean she could voice them.

  “I will be sure to let him know.”

  The Crova seemed taken aback by the reaction and her response, quietly nodding and continuing on her way.

  She gave a sniff and carried on her trek. The interaction may have soured the moment, but she had spent all morning preparing.

  She would not be deterred.

  She walked onto the bridge to find Moose watching a screen while holding the little book he carried around. Kitty should still be napping for some time, as she had only come down here when the woman had passed her on the way to the bedroom. So long as nothing happened, she should have Moose to herself for a while.

  She could feel her heartbeat speed up and her face start to warm as she got close. It had taken her so much time to work up the courage and will herself into action. She didn’t know what she would do if she was denied.

  Carefully, being as delicate as she could, she pressed her head into Moose’s hand. Her own hands coming up to hold it in pce.

  ‘I really wish my tail would stop. At this rate I might actually fall over.’

  [D]He did his best to make his way down the straight corridor as if he belonged there. He wasn’t sure what would happen if he were caught, but he preferred his actions to remain unknown.

  ‘Another security door. What kind of ship needs so many security doors.’

  He moved to check the panel. It was titled something concerning an aqua-habitat thing. Far too scientific for him to understand. The important part was that he was denied access once again.

  ‘Every time. Why not just have one security door to deny access to everything. That would be far more efficient.’

  His movements had been hampered the first several days of the journey by the absence of light in the hallways. The girl had been required to escort them to the mess hall and sanitary facilities. Thankfully, Christy had thought to bring tools like a light and data-pads in their supplies, but finding those supplies in the dark had been an impossibility. The girl had certainly not wanted to bring them there. That changed when the girl had shown up and informed them that the lights worked again.

  She promptly squinted and left in a hurry once they tested that.

  After the lights had come back, he and Christy had unfettered access to everywhere. Except behind these security doors. Christy had been right about this being a deep space vessel. The entire floor oozed science. Numerous bs and precision workshops were spread out all over the pce. With them currently unused he couldn’t tell what they had been studying, but it was clear they could study pretty much anything.

  It was all well beyond his own understanding of science, so after finding the first couple of bs he simply stopped looking. No, the thing that truly interested him was behind those security doors. He knew one of them led to the bridge, he had seen it when he was first brought onto the ship. His unfortunate incapacitation made finding it again far more of a chore than he first thought.

  ‘I should have just asked Christy. It would be so rude to not answer her own questions in return though.’

  That was a conversation he was avoiding for several reasons.

  ‘Far better to find a solution to a different problem.’

  He had yet to check the heavy tools that Christy had brought. He knew there were some, but he left them undisturbed, just in case anyone got curious and wanted to know what they had pnned. If no one touched them, it was just a part of a bulk purchase. No real reason to have them, just a coincidence. He could ask Christy, but that just looped around to the original problem he was out here avoiding.

  ‘If only I could find some remote way to figure out what system we are traveling near.’

  He still pnned to flee the ship as soon as possible. He wasn’t sure which was more dangerous, his pursuers or the nightmare scenario on this ship, but this ship was far more present than his pursuers. Better to find a solution to the problem at hand first. He could just jump in the shuttle and go, but that approach was more likely to lead to significantly worse problems. Like being dead. He needed more information first.

  Something he was increasingly sure he wouldn’t be able to obtain.

  This was a Christy problem. He couldn’t fight, the War-beast had shown him utterly cking in that arena. He shuddered even trying to imagine what the rger nightmare could do to him. He couldn’t sneak away, the shuttle wouldn’t get them very far in the gactic sense. If they weren’t close enough to something, it was basically worthless. He couldn’t sabotage the ship. Obviously. That left words as the only way out.

  Something he was a complete amateur at.

  The only real option left was to go through the supplies they had brought onboard and hope he got hit with inspiration. That and hope he didn’t get hit with something physical.

  “There you are. I thought you actually tried to ride that drive wake.”

  Having made it back to the ‘occupied’ area, his problems got shuffled around a little. Avoiding difficult conversations was rising to the top of the pile.

  “I’m trying to get a yout of the ship. We have so little intel it stops us from even pnning a next move”

  He grimaced when she held up her data-pad. How had she managed to get what seemed like a full map?

  “I told you they don’t question things. If you just asked, we could probably just get dropped off at a station.”

  He….. didn’t think of that.

  “That’s good to have and useful, I guess. It doesn’t let you get a feel for the ship though. Real things have more… weight, to them.

  “How confident are you that you could get us to a station undetected?”

  She sighed. That wasn’t a good sign. It seemed he would need to go on pnning.

  “I honestly don’t know. Some of the information is just freely avaible on the ships internal network. Almost like they don’t care if we know. But getting them to do what I ask? I’m not even sure my requests are getting past the young girl.

  “I honestly thought she was going to bite me earlier. Neither her nor the creature are happy to let me see whoever is in charge.”

  “Hmm, she’s brainwashed. That’s not surprising.”

  His mind was trying to come up with strategies and other possible pns, so he barely paid much attention to his response. Christy really had turned up a lot of useful information.

  “Wha--, brainwashed!? Can we help her? Deprogram her and get her somewhere safe?”

  His brain stuttered for a bit, trying to interpret her response and concerns.

  “Ah, maybe brainwashed isn’t right. Everyone is convinced that agility is the Canirean racial trait. The Canirean government even encourages that. That’s not entirely true though. For you, your ability to see more of the light spectrum is something you’re born with. If you’re comparing to the Canirean agility, the Crova penchant for reading emotion and expression that comes from that in-born trait is the closer comparison.

  “For Canireans, our in-born trait is adapting to our environment. By subjecting ourselves to near constant battle, real or staged, our bodies submit to that and adapt to express agility, along with a few other things most overlook. The reasons were over my head, but it had something to do with hormones and environmental stressors, whatever that means. Because most other races have such obvious traits, the underlying ‘reasons’ are generally overlooked. Something most governments encourage. The only other real exception being the humans. They say they are highly adaptable, but they just aren’t, so a straight lie rather than misdirection. They are simply so crazy they make the environment submit, rather than change themselves. Not that anyone has been able to convince them of that.”

  He had always wondered why each race fit so nicely into a slot. The data disk proved it wasn’t nature, even if it didn’t give any expnations.

  “That girl has been here for so long that her body adapted for low light vision. That would take months. As with most things concerning our race, an Alpha might speed up that process, but they aren’t required for it to happen in the first pce. Even with an Alpha present and the shortest time to adapt, it is generally considered torture to force our bodies to change. I have even seen intelligent and competent soldiers turn into battle junkies due to an Alpha causing change.

  “The chances that girl is normal or can be easily fixed are close to zero. I can ask about a re-programing facility if we ever make it to Canirean space, but no other race would be able to treat her. If we even manage to get her off this ship.”

  Christy looked a bit troubled and sighed. She always had been a bit too empathic.

  “I guess that expins why she is naked. I didn’t think ‘because someone else is’ to be such a culturally loaded answer.”

  His brain ran into a wall.

  That… wasn’t generally a symptom.