“Ohmygods I am so sorry!” I yelped back in reply, ears flicking back in embarrassment when I realised what had happened. “I was lost in thought, I didn’t mean for that to come out and I didn’t mean to run into you and-”
Getting over her own moment of fluster, the android woman placed a hand on my shoulder to cut me off. “It’s okay… Kaela, right? Don’t worry, I think you caught me off guard too.”
“Y-yeah…” I stammered out softly, feeling a blush growing across my face. Now that I was up close to her, her sculpted face looked even prettier and her hand was extremely gentle and careful where it was on my shoulder.
“I think our friends are still having their chats, so why don’t we find the galley and get you something to eat?” Autumn asked, letting go of me. My heart fluttered at the offer, but I shook my head.
“No, t-thanks.” I replied quietly, stepping around her quickly. “I need to get training and stuff… Sorry…”
I quickly moved off, walking away before she could say anything else. My face was still burning red, and all I could think about was getting to my cabin before I talked to anyone else. I was absolutely done with people today, and I needed to lose myself into something else.
I sighed in relief only once my cabin door slid closed, and I was mercifully alone. The room was decent size for a ship cabin, the size of a small studio apartment with its own ensuite bathroom. It even had a proper running water shower, which would be a nice break from the dry sterilisation system my old cockpit had to keep me clean.
I collapsed into my bed, fighting back tears. The storm of emotions was becoming harder and harder to ignore, especially as I felt the blankets pushing against my slimmer back and my tail once again curling up between my legs. Dammit, where was my mask of bravado and confidence that I could effortlessly slip on for dealing with my parents or intern work for their company? It was just… absent when I needed it today, and the fragility underneath was laid bare for my friends and new crewmates to see.
I pulled myself into a sitting position, sliding myself into the corner that the bed was tucked into. A swipe downward with my hand brought up the menu and I tabbed over to the skill section. A distraction was what I needed, and so I decided to channel that into being productive.
[Start Medium Weight Starship Pilot Training?]
[Yes]/[No]
I clicked the yes button, and my vision pixelated as the system loaded up the training simulation.
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Lea’s POV
I gave my body a stretch as I woke up in my cabin. The three days back in the real world we had spent was frustrating as always. Our parents were back from holiday, which meant that we had to be around for the inevitable social events they held.
The parties themselves weren’t really all that bad, but our parents insisted we try and get along with the kids of some of the richest assholes in Los Francisco. They were the kinds of young adults who were absolutely insufferable to someone who’d grown up poor like I had. Soren had been lucky, he was still a baby when Mom and Dad had won the single largest lottery jackpot in human history. However, I still remembered the days before that, trying to decide if I was going to have an entire slice of toast for breakfast or cut it in half to ration it for the next day’s meal.
Regardless, back in Stellara Nova we could just enjoy ourselves and actually get to spend some time without the need to maintain our ‘family reputation’. After making sure my virtual muscles were warmed up, I headed out towards the galley of the Vagabond to grab some food and start my engineering rounds before we headed out.
I found the synth lady Autumn already in the galley, giving her a small wave as I approached the food station. I grabbed a plate and stuck it under the AutoCook, before plugging my choice into the screen. It took a few seconds for it to print out the hotcakes with syrup, but once it finished I headed back over to Autumn and sat down.
“Good time off?” I asked, before digging into my food. I would never get past how good the simulated taste was, even if I knew it wasn’t real.
“Yes and no. I refreshed my coffin yesterday and that went well.” Autumn said mechanically, keeping her tone level for a moment before dropping character. “You are friends with Ms Kaela offline, right?”
“Yeah, whassap?” I asked, raising an eyebrow and setting my fork down. There was worry in her voice, and I was gearing up to defend my friend again.
“Have you seen her recently?” Autumn asked, searching my eyes as she spoke, “She locked herself in her cabin when you logged out, but never logged out. She just isolated herself, and I’m getting worried. It’s not healthy to be alone for that long.”
“Wait, she didn’t log out?” I replied, furrowing my brow. I brought my friends list up quickly, and checked her status. She was indeed online, and the ship's logs showed that her door hadn’t opened once for three days now. “That’s not good…”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Agreed.” The android woman slipped back into character, nodding slowly. “I am not familiar enough to intercede, but I predicted you may be more than willing.”
“Damn right.” I said as I stood up. I ditched my delicious hotcakes, and began to power walk towards her cabin. Autumn got up and followed me, but I didn’t say anything. I needed to make sure my friend was okay.
I heard a commotion from down the hall as I was getting close. Soren was pounding his fist on the door, yelling into the room through the locked door.
“Kaela! Please stop ignoring my messages and open the door!” He shouted, before groaning as he tried to physically pull the door open.
“Soren, what the fuck did you do this time!?” I yelled at him as I got close, anger flaring up. What the hell was getting into him recently? He was always bad with his mouth getting ahead of his brain, but had he said something even worse than that slidingly racist comment the other day? Sure it was all fictional species, but Kaela had taken it hard and I suspected there was more to it than just a species thing.
“What?” Soren turned towards me, surprised by my sudden and rapid approach. “I didn’t do anything! I texted her during our break and she didn’t reply to me at all! Then I log in today, and I see she’s been locked in her cabin the entire time!” He growled, gesturing futally at the door.
I frowned. That wasn’t like her, she always answered her texts as fast as possible. “Did you try the door override?” I asked, and he nodded.
“It refused my authorization code, and said the occupant had deadbolted it from inside. We can’t override that.” Soren replied, clearly frustrated and upset. “I just wanted to apologise, but she’s been stonewalling me. Did I fuck up that bad?”
“She took it really bad, bro.” I replied, sighing. “Let me try. Maybe I can get her attention.”
I gently pushed my brother out of the way, and knocked more gently on the door. “Kae? It’s Lea, are you in there? Are you okay?”
It took a second, but I heard a soft thump and a small scattering of things around the room before the door clicked unlocked, and Kaela slid it open partway.
Her eyes had big bags under them, like she’d pulled an all-nighter. Her hair was a complete mess, and her tail had knotted fur all up it. She was only wearing an oversized night shirt, which had a couple food stains across it. Glancing behind her into the room, I could see the bed was a complete disaster that had all but been pulled apart by someone thrashing in it. There were wrappers from the starter sets of vacuum-sealed ration packs all across the floor, and equipment was both discarded around the room or set up in a small workstation on the floor next to her bed.
“What?” Kaela asked, exasperated. “Why haven’t you logged off yet?”
I blinked in surprise at her, taking in the sight of the completely dishevelled woman and room. “We… Did. Three days ago. Kaela… What the heck have you been doing?”
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Kaela’s POV
I slipped quietly into the pilot’s seat on the bridge. I’d only woken up from my mandated nap thirty minutes ago or so, Lea having remained in my room to make sure I got the rest I needed. She had stayed seated on the floor next to my bed, gently petting my head until I fell asleep. Of course that hadn’t taken long, but I still remembered it pretty vividly. She was down in engineering now as we got ready to report.
The bridge was a cozy, if open space. It was a circular room at the top of the saucer section, with workstations spread around the outside wall. The captain’s chair where Soren was sitting was right in the middle on a slightly raised section, and the pilot’s chair was just in front. Alex was to my left operating the sensor panel. He was the main eyes of the ship beyond the large viewscreen in the front of the room.
Our two guests, Koal and Autumn were standing at the back of the bridge watching as we got ready.
“Pilot Kaela reporting, Captain.” I said softly as I settled into my seat, and adjusted the controls slightly to my short frame.
“Very good, Miss Kaela.” Soren said, his voice held as level as possible. I could feel his eyes on the back of my head now, but I did my best to ignore it. I know he wanted to talk to me. The numerous text messages I’d missed from him when I went into my… isolation were proof of that.
We didn’t have time now. Lea had all but demanded everyone leave me alone until my nap was done when she saw what state I was in, and he hadn’t pushed his chances then. I knew that would end once we were on the way, and he had me alone to talk to. I wished Lea were up here for that conversation, but she had her own duties to attend to with running the Vagabond’s oversized power plant in the engineering section.
I brought up the digital map display on my console screen, uploading the Novaspace flight plan I’d spent far too long refining. I’d figured out how to do it much faster than I had initially expected, which I had a suspicion was to do with my quirk. The problem was that I got it into my head that the first jump couldn’t just be good, it had to be perfect.
“Flight plan submitted, Captain.” I reported, “Waiting for departure clearance, airlock seals are good and all flight systems are green.”
“We have departure clearance.” Alex spoke up, sharing a nod with me.
“Take her out then, Kaela. Nice and slow.” Soren ordered, and I obeyed.
The ship’s sublight engines gave a low roar through the frame of the ship, and I pulled away from the docking ring carefully. The RCS nozzles were powerful enough that they were enough to slide us sideways even as the main engines began to move our vector forwards.
We continued like that for a few thousand metres as our speed picked up, then I began to adjust our heading to start matching up with the Novaspace slip vector. It was silent on the bridge as I did, with the lead up building tension. It was risky to jump to Novaspace without an experienced pilot, but I was confident in my skills and I ignored the nervous looks I was getting.
With an ear flick of annoyance, I glanced back at Soren. “Novaspace vector locked Captain. Permission to engage slipspace drive?”
Soren hesitated a moment, before giving a nod. “Make it so.”
I rolled my eyes at his reference as I engaged the system. The world outside the viewscreen blurred as the stars shifted and melted together, becoming nothing more than streaks of light that gave way to the orange and blue nebula of Novaspace.
I sighed in relief as the transition was successful, and checked my readings. All were matching up exactly with what I predicted they would be. A grin crossed my face as I could feel my tail wagging next to me.
“Novaspace transition complete. ETA Yau Paula in two days, twenty one minutes.” I reported. The computer would take care of the basic travel now, and alert me before any problems popped up.
Everyone on the bridge visibly relaxed at that, and began to carry on with their own work. The two Delanno employees stepped out, though I didn’t pay them much mind.
“Awesome…” Soren said, shifting to his feet as he gave a small stretch. “Ms Kaela, can you please join me in my ready room? We… Need to talk.”