Aeva

The air was quiet as I sat in my cabin, the hum of machinery being the only sound as I calmly stared at the wall. What a mess the past seven or eight hours has been. If it wasn’t preventing pirates from boarding, was helping Alex with his mech. And if it wasn’t that it’s watching him almost get killed by some spiteful crewmates. Life was so much simpler when the Terrans were just an enigma that not even mind readers could sus out.

With all this mulling over in my mind I couldn’t help but long for what life would be like without today happening. I would be blissfully ignorant of the Terran’s true nature, and had a good friend in Alex, even without the knowledge of what he really was underneath that suit of armor. I was so engrossed in my thoughts that I barely heard my communicator going off, I looked down at it despondently. I did a doubletake at the name on it. It was my parents.

I hesitated for a moment before finally accepting the call. The hologram flickered to life as I saw my parents, their once vibrant and colorful feathers turning grey as they aged. “Hey Mom, hey Dad,” I managed to get out.

Mom’s crest immediately flared out in concern as she saw my expression. “Dear, are you alright? We heard about the pirate attack on the Shooting Star and what happened with the Terran on board!” she shouted.

“We’ve been trying to reach you the entire time, but there was a lot going on, what with the freeze on trade with United Terra, and we’ve only been able to get this call in now,” Dad explained.

I gave a heavy sigh that caused my crest to droop. “I’m ok, but things have been extremely difficult. I’m sure that you’ve heard this already, but apparently, the armored void suits that the Terrans wear are mechanical robots, the size of the average person and the actual Terran sits in a tiny chair in the head! Can you believe that? And they’re so small too! I could probably carry thirty without breaking a sweat! And to think that I was the one to discover it, and that the Terran would want to be my friend after his cover was blown!” I gave a whistle of shock. I suppose that I didn’t really process everything that happened until just now. My voice started to shake. “And now, he’s lost his job, and probably going to be court martialed, all because he tried doing the right thing when we fought off those pirates.”

“It sounds like you have a lot going on right now,” Dad said more as a statement than a question.

“Oh Stars, Dad, you have no idea.” Tears were starting to form in my eyes. “Everything has been happening so fast that I haven’t really been able to do anything but react.”

Mom’s expression softened as she saw that I was on the verge of tears. “Well, dear, you know that we love you, and by the Stars, we wish that we were there for you, but that’s just not possible right now. Find yourself a crewmate that you can be vulnerable with, and just talk with them. I’m sure that it’ll be for your good.”

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“Your mother’s right, you know,” Dad said as his feathers splayed out a bit. “By the way, how long until you get some shore leave? I can’t imagine that it’s very fun being cooped up in that ship for very long.”

I gave a weak sniffle. “I’ll have to do that,” I said. “And to answer your question, I’ll be getting some shore leave in about three weeks on the Terran diplomat ship The Strength Through Diplomacy.” I was about to talk some more, but I heard a loud knock on the door of my cabin. “Oh, that’s probably for me. I’ve got to go, but thanks for calling, it really does mean a lot to me.”

“Take care of yourself Aeva,” Dad said. “I speak for both of us when I say we will always love you and support whatever decision that you end up making.”

I gave them an appreciative nod and ended the call before sighing heavily. I got up from the bed and made my way over to the door. I opened it, and instead of another crewmember, there sat Alex the Terran, in his mech looking up at me expectantly. The mech looked as if it had somehow gotten even worse in the hour that I hadn’t seen it, perhaps he got into a fight with one of the crewmates? “Hey, Aeva, I’m sorry to bother you right now, but I was wondering if I could talk to you?” he asked.

“Sure,” I said as I motioned for him to come in. I headed over to the bed, while Alex parked himself in front of the desk, where he placed his hand. There was a hiss as the cockpit opened to reveal the Terran climbing down it’s arm until he came to a stop on the desk where he sat in that strange cross-legged position that he seemed to favor for one reason or another. There was silence for a moment before I decided to break it. “So, one hell of a day It’s been, hasn’t it?” I asked, deciding to take some of the phrases that he seemed to favor when it came to expletives.

He gave a small chuckle. “You can say that again, I just hope that it all works out in the end, I suppose,” he said while he fidgeted with his hands. Silence reigned once again as we both seemed too exhausted, both physically and emotionally, to speak. “I think I found myself a job that I can keep paying the bills with,” he finally said, breaking the comfortable silence that we had around us. “It took some doing and begging the captain for, but I managed to get something going, since I can’t do security now.”

“Oh really? Doing what?” I asked him as I turned my head to look at him.

“I’m going to be looking at the security cameras all day every day to report any wrongdoing to the captain or security, depending on how bad it is.” He gave another noncommittal shrug. “Or at least that’s the plan if the captain can get the head of security on board with it all,” he explained as he continued to fidget with his hands.

“Why do you even need this job anyways? It’s not like you can use it on most products that the galaxy uses.”

He gave a noncommittal shrug and gestured to the mech. “Well, I already explained it to the captain, and I don’t really want to explain it again, or at least not in detail. Basically, I owe a lot of money to the company that made the mech, and I can’t default on those debts.” He gave a big yawn. “God I’m tired.” He stood up and made his way back over to the mech, climbing over it before finally being interred in it. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow. Do you want to do breakfast then?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I would like that. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I guess so.