“Well, uh, it’s my cat,” Lus stammered to a rather perturbed Cewi-Bano. “His name is Avil. He was that stowaway we had a few weeks ago.”

“That’s not exactly a cat,” Cewi pointed out.

“Right. Well, he’s close enough.” Lusac held out the animal. “Want to hold him? He’s really friendly.”

“Friendly or not, you have to get him registered. You know how picky the Captain is about crewmembers having pets.” The Nemarian gently rejected the offer by crossing her arms.

“I know. I’ve just been busy.”

“Before this last mission, you just had an entire month on ship.”

“And I was busy. Yrqw worked me hard, and I still cooked dinner every night.” Lus reminded her. And made a few recipes of my own, he added silently to himself.

“Well as the third-in-command, I oversee crew matters. Don’t make me take this to the Captain. Go talk to Xwvl and get this figured out.”

“Yes ma’am,” Lus said with a sigh as he pulled Avil close once again. Xwvl managed all the things pertaining to daily life of crewmembers like assigning quarters and issuing uniforms. When it came to “non-essential” things, she had a reputation of being unreasonable in most matters, rarely allowing for anything that wasn’t required by the Runners Guild. The chances of her allowing Lus to keep a random cyclops cat he found in the fslyan tubes seemed abysmal at best.

“Good. Now, back to my original point.” Cewi-Bano cleared her throat and attempted to make her voice a little less authoritative. “I heard about the mission. Do you want to talk about it?”

“Thanks for the offer, but I’m good. I actually just finished ‘talking’ about it with Captain Tave, so I’ve reminisced enough for today.” Lus tightened his grip on Avil, wishing he could go back in time and stop himself from hurting Quniwel so badly. At the time, he hadn’t been thinking about things like permanent disabilities. He’d been in complete survival mode and done whatever it took to eliminate the threat.

“I hope the Captain wasn’t too rough. I know he was pretty upset when Nippy first rang in with what happened, but you’re a good kid, Lus. No one thinks you were trying to kill Yonnex-Quniwel just because,” Cewi comforted him. When he didn’t say anything, she continued. “It just sucks that it was such a tough situation. Personally, I really appreciate you saving Wsr. My understanding is that she might not have made it if you didn’t get her out when you did.”

Lusac shrugged. He didn’t like being praised for hurting his friend, even if it was in defense of another. “I’m just glad they’re both going to be okay. Mostly, at least.”

“Me too. And getting that artifact by yourself was pretty impressive too. You’re a real hero.” Cewi lightly punched his arm, and he forced a smile in hopes of getting her to leave. He was sick of rehashing the same story over and over again, but something inside told him everyone would be asking about the expedition over the next few days.

“Alright. Well I’ve got some other stuff to go do. You’ll be alright?”

“Yeah. Thanks for checking in Cewi. I’m going to go see Xwvl about Avil before dinner to see if I can get that taken care of now.”

“Sounds good. I’ll see you at the cafeteria.” Cewi-Bano waved a webbed hand as she departed back down the corridor.

Lus checked the time. He still had over an hour before dinner, and he didn’t have to make it this time since Lbrvr was handling both shifts while he was out on missions. He was surprised that part of him missed the idea of getting into the kitchen to cook.

With a sigh, Lus bundled Avil closer and stepped out into the hall. It would be better to get that visit with Xwvl out of the way sooner rather than later since it might take a few trips to convince the Kremel to allow him to keep the cat.

In a pleasant turn of events, the corridor was empty except for him. He wasn’t in the mood to try and explain the cyclops cat to anyone else that day. Xwvl’s office was the end of the quarters to make her more “accessible,” but Lus didn’t know anyone who went to see her unless they absolutely had to. He buzzed the doorbell and when it slid open, he stepped into the heavily decorated space. A dozen posters hung on the walls, as well as a string of dim, purple lights which wrapped around to create a rather cozy atmosphere. Xwvl’s desk was full of pictures and trinkets, which struck Lus as odd given her reputation for banning most non-essential requests for quarters.

“Lusac, what can I do for you?” she asked, swiveling her chair so her front was fully in view. A holoscreen remained up to the side with some kind of reports that Lus didn’t look too closely at.

“Hi Xwvl. How are–”

“Is that a cat?” She cut him off immediately, her orange eyes narrowing as she caught sight of the black fur lump in his arms.

“Uh, yeah. Sort of. His name is Avil. I found him the other day in the fsylan tubes. He must have snuck onboard during a resupply. Since we have no way of tracking down if he even had an original owner, I was thinking of keeping him.” Lus shifted his load so Avil’s face showed outward and Xwvl could see the single eye.

“And why would you need a pet? It seems a little unkind to adopt an animal when you’re gone so often. Who would take care of it?” Xwvl clasped her hands in front of her on the desk, her posture stiff and out of place among the cozy office.

“I already talked to Becky Bright, and she agreed to help care for him. And it’s nice to come back to someone after a long day of working.” Lusac moved closer, hoping that Avil’s cuteness might soften Xwvl up a bit.

“Unfortunately, there are over fifty people on the Argo, and I don’t see how all of them can have a pet in any kind of sustainable manner, therefore, it would be unfair of me to allow you to keep this creature just because ‘it’s nice.’ I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to leave him on the next planet.” Xwvl’s voice was flat as she spoke, as though she was giving a boring lecture on standardized rules.

“Come on, Xwvl. It’s not like I went out and bought him. He just happened to pop up on the ship. It would be cruel to abandon him now.”

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“It’s cruel of you to have taken him from his home at all.”

Lus grated his teeth. Of course he couldn’t reveal the truth of Avil’s origins and him being part of the Demon housed in the interbox since that would cause an entirely different set of much larger issues.

“Please let me keep him. He has lowered a lot of stress in my life, especially since I started as the dinner chef.” Pleading a case for mental health might break through.

“Sorry, Lusac, but unless Doctor Fusi has specifically stated you need an emotional support animal, that isn’t an acceptable reason.”

“Can’t you make an exception this once?”

“If I make an exception for you, I’d have to make one for everyone.” Xwvl shook her head.

“Isn’t there some way to change your mind? Something I can do?”

“You aren’t suggesting an exchange of favors, are you Lusac? That would be inappropriate,” Xwvl’s thick eyebrows raised in suspicion.

What he had meant was something he can do to prove Avil was worth keeping around, but the look in Xwvl’s eyes hinted that even though she claimed it was “inappropriate,” this might be his only way to complete the quest and save Avil.

“Of course not,” Lus stated in such a way that it was clear he was lying. “But if you, as my friend, had something you needed done that for some reason you couldn’t do yourself, then I, as your friend, might be able to do that and keep it between us. And since we’re friends, you could help me out and smudge a regulation or two to allow me to keep Avil. It’s all strictly friendship based, of course.”

“Right. Just two friends doing as friends do.”

“And that’s completely appropriate.”

“Exactly,” Xwvl agreed. “So as my friend, you might be interested in helping me out with a certain problem.”

“Whatever you need,” Lusac pledged, though part of him wondered if this was going to end up being a very bad idea.

“A date.”

“What? A-a date?” Lus stammered. Xwvl was not only not his type, but she was rather old for him. At least three decades older.

“Not with you, idiot. With Yrqw. But I don’t want to just ask him out. I need someone to be my wingman and talk me up so he has some interest first. Ideally, he’d ask me out,” Xwvl explained.

Lusac breathed in relief as subtly as he could. “Oh, yeah. That makes sense. He’s my direct supervisor so I’ll have ample chances to talk to him.”

The Kremel rolled her eyes. “Why do you think I’m talking to you about this, Loser?”

He glared at her for using that nickname he hated most. “I’ll see what I can do. Give me a couple of days, and–”

“Three days,” she stated. “That’s our next stop for a resupply. I hope Yrqw asks me out by then, or else Avil will be looking for a new home. Understand?”

“Yes. I’ll get you that date, Xwvl.” He nodded vigorously and clutched Avil a little closer. He wasn’t going to lose his official system-approved companion and a new [Skill], not with such an easy task before him. “Thanks again, Xwvl.”

“Thank me once the deal’s complete.” She motioned him away as she turned back to the holoscreen.

“Some friend,” he mumbled to himself on his way out of the office. Back in the corridor, Lus quickly made his way to his quarters before he could run into anyone who would ask about the cat he carried. It was especially important now that no one knew about his arrangement with Xwvl since Cewi-Bano would surely put a stop to that kind of quid-pro-quo.

He was in his room again and getting Avil some food when the comm unit went off.

“Lusac, can you stop by medical again? I want to double-check something from the exam,” Doctor Tremt-Fusi said.

Sighing again, Lus walked over to it and pressed the button to respond. “Sure. I can drop by tomorrow morning.” If he planned it right, he could catch Yrqw on his way to the cafeteria and get the chance to start warming the Kremel up to a date with Xwvl.

“Today. Now, actually,” Fusi corrected him.

So much for his plans to save Avil.

“Alright. On my way.” He knew better than to argue with Doctor Fusi. As polite as she was, she could get a real temper when people were “irresponsible” in regards to their health, and too many people were mad at Lus for other things to risk another.

Leaving a rather sad Avil, he exited his quarters and made his way back to the medical center where the doctor waited.

“Ah, good. You were quick,” she said as she swiped away a holoscreen. She then motioned to the exam room. “Come on. I want to give you a proper check up.”

Lus went first, breathing out complaints the whole way. He didn’t see Zer-Dasht which meant she’d singled him out for some reason.

“How are Quniwel and Wsr?” he asked on their way into the room.

“They’ll both pull through. You guys did a good job keeping them alive,” Tremt-Fusi said.

“All Nippy and Dasht,” Lus responded as he reached the exam table.

“Are they the ones who also treated your injury? The one you decided not to mention when I asked about concerns earlier?” The doctor stared at him expectantly with those black eyes.

“Injury? Oh. You mean the cut I got from Quniwel. It’s been a few days, and Dasht made sure to get it patched up back on the moon so I hardly notice it anymore.” Lus rolled his shoulder to confirm that the cut didn’t suddenly start hurting again now that he remembered it was there.

“Well as much as I trust Zer-Dasht’s medical knowledge, let me take a look at it anyway, yeah?” Fusi asked.

Lus nodded and tugged his shirt off. That motion did cause a little pain, but he was convinced that was only because he was thinking about the wound again. He sat on the table with his hands at his side as Fusi unwrapped the bandages.

The doctor then did her prodding along the cut, causing a few more jolts and aches, and when she returned to jot some notes down on the computer, her face was drawn in thought.

“It’s fine, right? I mean, it was cauterized by the cutter as it happened, and it got wrapped within an hour or two,” Lus confirmed.

Fusi’s lips darted into a frown. “It looks like there’s some kind of infection or something in it. You’re sure you didn’t get anything in it like some dirt?”

“No. It was protected against all that,” Lusac assured her. “Wait. I did have to swim at one point, but shouldn’t the bandages have protected against that?”

“The emergency bandages aren’t waterproof. Was the water clean?”

“It looked that way to me.”

“Hmm. You still might have picked something up from it. I’ll get you started on some antibiotics, and I’ll check it again in a couple of days. It looks rather irritated though. You’re sure it doesn’t hurt?” The doctor stopped her typing to face him.

“Not all. I hardly felt a thing until you started poking in it,” Lusac replied.

“And that hurt a lot?”

“Just a little. I think it’s mostly healed.”

“Not from what I saw. It might be a side effect of the infection.” She returned to typing at the computer, likely adding that to her notes. “I’m going to assign you light duty again for a few days until we get it figured out. Maybe you can handle all the cooking for poor Lbrvr. She’s been complaining non-stop since she had to take over for the dinner shift too.”

“I feel fine, Doc. I’ll do fine at my regular duties.” When was he going to have the time to chat with Yrqw if he was spending all day in the kitchen?

“Just a few days,” she repeated with a smile that warned Lus against complaining any more.

“Okay. Fine. Doctor knows best, right?”

“And don’t you forget it.” She patted his knee. “I’ll grab you those pills. Make sure to take them morning and night at the same times each day for maximum efficacy.”

“Will do,” he promised. He thought of all that extra time cooking. At least he’d be getting a ton of [XP] from it, maybe enough to buy another [Skill]. And as for saving Avil, it couldn’t be that hard to track Yrqw down outside of his shift, right?