“Thing is, Vale,” said Patek, “I’m already having a private dalliance with the very lovely, but unfortunately, very taken Mrs. Cadence here.”

“Oh, I’m sure that hasn’t stopped you before, Captain,” Phillipa said coyly, giggling some more.

For a pastor’s wife...Vale stopped herself from going further.

“Well...” Patek said with a wink. “Regardless. We’ve got two options here, S.O. Vale. Either we can have the convo, and Philippa here can listen in-“

“Ooh,” said Phillipa.

“Or you and I can talk later. Which is it?”

Mutiny, said a calm, quiet voice inside Vale’s head. I drag this middle-aged skank out of here by her hair, relieve you of command, and pass the ship over to Nought.

She smiled. “Later is fine, Captain.” Although the first mate might not be too keen on either of us after she sees what I’ll do to your face.”

Captain Patek flourished. “Carry on, then S.O. Continue to keep us safe from...brigands, or aliens, or whatnot.”

Vale left without a word, pushing herself backwards down the command canister and turning in the air as she did so. As she did, she kept her ear tuned behind her, expecting the pair of giggling, drinking idiots to comment on her once they thought she was out of earshot.

She was right.

“That’s Vale for you,” the captain said, somewhat quietly, but not quietly enough. “She’s a big girl. Strong as a man of the same size, thanks to all of the shit- pardon me, stuff – that the military put into her. She could take most people on easy, tear them to shreds without breaking a sweat. But she’s still got that military bearing, you know? She still respects the rank.”

“But I don’t understand,” said Phillipa’s voice, now almost completely out of earshot. “Why do we even need a security officer? We’re Christians, not...”

Vale was out of range. Partially amused, and partially filling up with the cold rage that often seeped into her like a lead at the bottom of an old rowboat. She’d seen what Christians could do, back on Mars, on Titan, on a dozen different space stations during the religio-fascist uprisings. And she-

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Count to ten, she told herself. Count to ten and breathe it out-

“Security Officer Vale.” Nought’s voice wheedled its way in between the static filling the old soldier’s head. “Security Officer Vale, are you feeling okay?”

Eight...nine...ten. Vale breathed out and opened her eyes. Nought stared at her, not with the annoying, simpering look that she had before, but with the sharp eyes of a woman who was ready to take control of a situation.

There you are, Vale thought. I see you in there. The better you, the one that you let your heart and your doubts push down all the time.

“I’m fine, thank you, Mr. Nought,” Vale said. She made as if to continue on her way, then paused.

“I was rude to you, earlier,” she said, before continuing. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

There not being a situation that Nought’s hidden, competent self needed to address, and receiving an apology from the larger, stronger, older, and more confident woman, caused Nought to look away.

“Thanks,” she said quietly. “I appreciate it. Really.”

Vale nodded. A thought popped into her head – the idea of reaching out and patting Nought on the shoulder, in sympathy and solidarity.

Nah, said the more natural voice inside of her, that would be weird.

Agreeing with the more natural voice, Vale pushed herself down to the end of the command canister, and pulled herself into the next general section.

Teek, she thought, grabbing a handhold and stopping herself before she missed the turn. Teek can help me. She was about to pull herself through the corridor leading over to engineering, but caught movement out of the corner of her eye.

She stared down the hallway leading to the general crew and passenger area. From far off she could hear voices – and even down at the far end, caught motion as a body or two floated around down in the next section. But the thing she had seen was closer than that.

Vale kept herself in place, watching, and waiting. She didn’t have to wait for long. A brown haired head peeked out from behind the bulk of one of the large o-rings connecting the current half of this section of the ship to the next half. The head disappeared as soon as the pale blue eyes in the middle of it spotted Vale.

Forget it, thought Vale. Go see Teek. But rather than listen to her wiser self, she found herself floating over towards the ledge of the o-ring and the place where the head had appeared.

Come on, Vale. Don’t fucking do this. You know you shouldn’t, you know it’s-

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

“Boo,” Vale said, peeking over the edge of the metal. The girl, wedged as far as she could be into the wall, gasped and jumped. There was no place to jump to, though, as all she could do was look at Vale with eyes as wide as a cartoon character’s.

“Hey, Felicity,” Vale said, allowing herself to float off a bit and give the girl some space.

“Hey,” Felicity replied, her voice barely loud enough to hear. She swallowed hard, then pushed a loose strand of her dusty brown hair over her ear. A second later, it floated back up and out again.

“Looking for your mom?” Vale asked. Felicity nodded slowly, and Vale echoed her.

“Yeah, she’s-“ Vale tossed her head backwards in the direction of the command canister. A flashbulb memory bloomed in front of her. A pale blue eye, opened so wide the lids disappeared completely. A pale blue eye swimming in a red pulpy mess that had once been a face. A hand, once small and dainty, now locked into a clawlike shape, reaching up for the sky, shaking, shaking, shaking-

“...Captain Patek,” Vale said, hearing herself once more as she finished telling the girl where Phillipa could be found. The memory was still in her retinas, an afterimage that she grabbed and started stuffing deep back down inside of her.

“Oh,” the girl said. “Okay. Thanks.” She both sounded and looked like a twelve-year-old. Vale remembered how shocked she had been to discover that the girl was sixteen, almost seventeen. And she remembered how angry she had been as her parents, gleefully, talked about how soon they were hoping to see her married off once they got to their new home.

Vale backed away, trying to Felicity more space. She bumped up against the opposite wall.

“You know, I bet First Mate Nought would be glad to see you,” Vale said. “I think she’s waiting to talk to the captain about some stuff, so if you need your mom-“

“I just wanted to know where she was,” Felicity said. She grabbed the loose hair once more, and started twisting it around her finger. She heard voices, loud, but brief, coming up to her engineward, where the rest of the passengers were. She looked down that way, unconsciously tugging on her hair even harder.

Vale nodded awkwardly. “Well. Okay then.” She started to pull herself back in the direction of Teek and engineering, but stopped.

“You know you don’t have to be afraid of me,” she said. “I’m not going to hurt you. If anything I’m here to...”

To protect her? Protect her from what? The only thing this girl needs protection from is her parents, and quite likely the old-ass piece of shit colonist who she’s going to be forced to marry. So unless you’re going to kidnap her-

“...to help you,” Vale said.

“I’m not afraid of you,” Felicity said, turning her big pale eyes back to Vale. “Should I be?”

Vale smiled sadly, squashing old memories before they could get their hooks into her. “No,” she said. “Not at all. Talk you later, Felicity.”

She pulled herself back over to engineering, not acknowledging the soft “bye” that followed her.

----------------------------------------

Engineering was basically four things – computer screens with an insane amount of information packed into them, switches and buttons, blinking lights, and various footholds and handholds sticking out of the equipment.

Teek, true to Teek’s style, had one toe in one foothold, and a toe on the other foot in another handhold, putting themself into a near perfect split. Teek’s back was arched to an almost disgusting degree, allowing them to look at one screen behind them, while tapping away at a keyboard at their hip while simultaneously hitting a series of switches in what was a pattern to them, but incomprehensible to anyone else.

Vale opened her mouth, about to speak, but before she could Teek reached up and removed their oversized headphones from their ears. They flipped upwards, reversing their body, and hanging upside-down – or what would have been upside-down, had they been back in gravity or under moderate thrust.

“Bvvv chrka wirrwhit?” Teek clicked, hummed, and chirped in greeting, waving a hand at Vale.

“Heya Teek,” Vale said. “How’s it going?”

Teek shrugged. “Eh,” they said. They scratched their short black hair, as if thinking about it further. “Mm hm. Eh.”

“Got a question for you,” Vale said. “You busy?”

Teek made a buzzing whistle, indicating to the billions of screens and lights surrounding them. Vale laughed.

“Yeah. I hear you. I’ll catch you later.”

Teek screeched like a car without breaks, holding out a palm. They turned the palm over, making hydraulic sounds as they closed and opened their fingers, robotic-like.

“You sure?”

Teek nodded.

“Thanks, Teek. I appreciate it.”

Teek purred, tilting their head back and forth before stopping and waiting for Vale continue.

“Okay. There’s a storage crate, over in H-6. Well, if Fungko’s moved it already-“

Teek held up a hand. They turned over their wrist, examining the long, flexible rectangle monitor wrapped around their forearm. Their other hand tapped a few things on the screen. They nodded solemnly, then indicated for Vale to continue.

“Yeah, so, H-6. It’s my cargo. But-“ Vale pondered pretending cluelessness, pretending that she forgot the password, or didn’t set the thumbprint reader, or something similar.

Ah, fuck it, she thought. Teek’s good people.

“Okay, back up,” Vale said. “Real talk. The cargo is assigned to me. I didn’t bring it onboard. And-“

“Zvvvvvip,” Teek said, closing their hand into a fist as if catching Vale’s words in their fingers. “Captain?” Teek said, their voice just as androgynous as their round face and petite frame.

“Yeah, the Captain’s the one who signed for it, gave the okay. And he’s busy right now so-“

“Glug glug,” Teek said, tossing back an imaginary shot.

“Yup,” Vale nodded. “And consorting with the passengers. Well, a passenger.”

“Oink, oink.”

“Are you saying he’s a pig?” Vale asked. “Or are you asking if they’re porking each other?”

Teek made a disgusted face.

“Yeah, I know, buddy,” Vale continued. “Anyway. My gut says he doesn’t know anything more about this than I do, other than that he’s at least got reason to think it won’t-“

Teek imitated an explosion, both with their mouth and their hands.

“Exactly. Anyway. Do you think you can take a look at the lock? Maybe it’s something you can, I dunno...hack or something?”

Teek successfully pantomimed both a crowbar and blowtorch.

“It’s a pretty nice storage crate,” Vale said. “I don’t think brute force would work here.”

Teek crossed their arms. Vale sighed.

“Okay, fine, I didn’t even think of that. I saw the lock and thought of you. Happy?”

Teek held their thumb and forefinger very close together.

“Will you take a look at it? When you’ve got a moment?”

“Pbbbbbbbb,” Teek burbled. Then, having run out of either sounds or the patience to express with them, they spoke.

“I’ll look now,” they said, tapping their chest. They pointed to Vale. “You bring me a bowl.”

Vale checked her watch. It was, indeed, five minutes to dinner. “I mean, it can wait-“

“You’re helping me,” Teek said, floating over to an equipment locker and opening it. “I don’t fuck with the chrisfash. Don’t like their eyes on me.” They started detaching items from the inside of the locker and putting them in the large cargo pockets on the sides of their modified flight suit.

“If it were up to me,” they said, pulling themselves over and past Vale, as elegant as a dancer and as strong as a gymnast, “I’d vent ‘em.”

They were back on sounds again. A cartoon-like pop, a raspberry, a wink, a finger gun, and the sound of those guns cocking, and Teek disappeared.