Walking was difficult still; between the damage to my ankles and brain, I had to lean on the fiery-haired woman to keep from collapsing. She didn’t seem to mind the slow pace, however, taking the opportunity to interrogate me. “So you don’t remember anything, huh?” she asked as soon as the medical bay doors had shut behind us. “That must suck.”

Afraid my tired self would say the wrong thing again, I instead simply shrugged.

“Quiet type huh? That makes one of us!” She chuckled briefly, then seemed to remember something. “Oh shit, you can call me Nova by the way. Sorry, I get ahead of myself sometimes.”

“Nice to meet you,” I said shyly.

“I guess I shouldn’t expect an introduction from you, huh Rook?” she teased. “That’s fine. That’s fine. So. What’s the void like?”

I shuddered with revulsion. “Nothing,” I replied simply. “Forever, and nothing.”

“Must have been so peaceful, getting a glimpse while you’re still alive,” she said wistfully. “They say it can be so unfathomably beautiful that it can drive you mad. That and the whole travelling issue is why non-ordained personnel have to stay in their cabins or on the bridge while we pass through.”

I shot Nova a sideways glance. I couldn’t imagine anyone willingly subjecting themself to the stuff of my nightmares. “Why do you call me Rook?” I asked in an effort to change the subject.

“It means ‘new guy’,” she replied without missing a beat. “That used to be Tau, your new roomie, but he lowkey hated being called Rook, so everything works out. You get a nickname until you can remember your own, and Tau gets a better nickname, as soon as I think of one.”

It didn’t sound like I had much choice in the matter, but Rook was still better than the name my family’s agent assigned me. I could definitely get used to it, at least until someone thought up something better.

Nova stopped as we came to a sturdy bulkhead door, and pressed her palm to a reader beside it. The wheel spun, the inner mechanisms grinding loudly, and the door swung slowly outwards. “Someone should really grease that. Pickle’s supposed to be in charge of that stuff, but I ain’t about to start shit with him.”

“What’s through this door?” I asked suspiciously, eying the nondescript hallway beyond.

“These bulkheads separate the fore and aft sections. Crew quarters are up front, most other stuff is in back. Careful here, Rook, there’s a gravity step.”

“What’s a gravity step?” I asked blankly.

“Well, you see those doors on the floor and ceiling?” she asked. “They aren’t. Those are the walls.”

I squinted at her skeptically.

“Here, lean on the door.” Nova pulled away from me, then stepped carefully through the bulkhead and stood upright on what to me looked like the right wall. “See? Gravity step! Come on, take my hand.”

I hesitantly complied, and stepped cautiously through the opening. The feeling of gravitational forces pulling me in different directions was certainly unique, and I had to lean on Nova extra hard to keep from falling as I stepped through. Finally, I found myself standing on what had looked like the wall, looking back at the crooked aft section.

“Pretty cool right?” Nova asked.

“How does it work?” I wondered aloud.

She shrugged. “My specialty is power generation and management. I could tell you all about the latest and greatest in LET dyson sphere technology, or the neverending ten revolution wait for a stable antimatter reactor, but artificial gravity? That shit’s alien to me.”

My eyes sparkled with curiosity as I hung on to every word. “So, are you like the coolest person here?” I asked.

Nova burst out laughing. “I like to think so!” she finally replied. “I’d love to tell you more, but for now I have to drop you off and get to the engine room. The fusion thruster’s being temperamental again. It’s not much further to your room.”

The corridor was shaped like a trapezoid with its long side facing up, which meant that the regularly spaced doors on either side of the hall were tilted back; each had a much less dramatic gravity step, as if you were stepping from one side of a hexagon onto the next.

“Why is everything hexagonal?” I asked.

“It’s a sturdy shape,” she answered noncommittally. “Like I said, we can talk engineering later. Here’s you!”

We stopped in front of a door labelled “13”, which was close to the middle of the residential hall, and my guide pressed a button on its control panel. A gentle chime sounded from the panel.

I counted the ticks impatiently, eager to get off my feet. Finally, a masculine voice responded from the intercom. “What?” it asked tiredly.

“It’s me. Open up,” Nova ordered.

“My shift isn’t for another six hours,” the voice whined.

Nova rolled her eyes. “This is something else. Open up, Taumiel.”

The door slid open, revealing a grouchy looking guy in boxers and white a tank top that hugged his muscles tightly, even through a shaggy layer of tawny fur. His golden eyes reminded me of Argus, and his ears were tall and pointed. A canid tail drooped behind him. “Yeah?” he asked impatiently, arms folded across his broad chest. “Who’s she?”

“He,” she corrected, “is your new roommate.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Um... hi, nice to meet you,” I said awkwardly.

“What the fuck, Nova?” he growled. “You told me I’d have my own room!”

She shrugged. “Plans changed. We picked up a new crewmember and he needs somewhere to stay, and someone to show him around.”

“What about the other wing?” Taumiel demanded.

Nova raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, like the captain is gonna approve switching on the life support to an entire section of the ship just for a junior engineer.”

“And he has my fucking job too?” he asked incredulously.

“Yes, he does. The reactor crew could use more than one gofer.” She stared her subordinate down, arms crossed and chest puffed out. “Are we going to have a problem here?”

Taumiel sucked air through his teeth, and let it out as a weary sigh. “Do I at least get a discount on habitation expenses?”

Nova patted him on the shoulder. “You’ll get extra for helping me train him up, too.”

He shot me a withering glare. “He didn’t go through basic? Where did you even find this kid?”

“We picked him up at the last gate station before the rim. He got a little banged up from uh...” Nova looked to me for assistance with her lie, but continued when I neglected to speak up. “Well, anyway, he’ll need a bit of help getting around for a couple days. Can you show him to the showers for now?”

My new roommate was blatantly unenthused. “Just make sure I get my hours for this.”

“Good man. I’ll see you both tomorrow for your first official tasks!” Nova checked a device on her wrist, and groaned. “Shit, I have to go. Be nice, Taumiel!” She shouted the last bit over her shoulder as she sprinted away, leaping over the gravity step like an expert and disappearing around a corner.

I cleared my throat uncomfortably. “So... the showers?”

“What happened to you?” he demanded. “Why are you all damaged?”

I winced. “I’m not sure what I’m supposed to say,” I admitted.

Taumiel narrowed his eyes at me.

“Can you just show me to the showers please? I’m kind of stinky.”

“I can tell.” His short muzzle wrinkled with disgust, but he didn’t move.

I took a deep breath. “Look, I’m sorry if my being here is inconvenient for you, but-”

“Inconvenient?” he interrupted. “Oh no, it’s not inconvenient at all when some rich kid shows up and barges his way into my personal space.”

I took a deep, calming breath. “I’m sorry. I know this must be hard for you. I just could really use-”

“Well I could really use my own room!” he shouted, stepping towards me threateningly. Without the gravity step between us, he was a head taller than me.

My eye twitched. If this guy really was just a junior engineer, and so was I, that meant that he was the one person I’d met without any real power over me. I didn’t have to take this trash from him. “Okay listen here. If I am what you think I am, do you really think that antagonizing me is a good idea?” I asked calmly, rage boiling just below the surface of my words.

“Are you threatening me?” Tau growled.

My pain faded into the background. “I have had the worst day of my life, and I refuse to take any more abuse, especially from some punk like you!” I snarled.

“Listen-” he began venomously.

“No, you listen!” I snapped. “Do you see this?” I held up my hands, displaying my ragged claws and the dried blood still clinging to them. “If you think I’m just some weak little rich boy that you can push around, you’re sadly mistaken, Taumiel.”

“It’s just Tau,” he mumbled.

“I don’t give a shit!” I shouted in his face. It felt good to watch him recoil, nearly losing his balance as he stumbled back over the step. Finally someone was backing down from me for a change. “This is my room now. You’re in my space, do you understand me?”

He looked at the floor, and his ears flattened to his scalp.

“I said, do we have an understanding?” I repeated slowly.

“Yes,” he begrudgingly replied.

“Good. Now show me to the showers.”

He silently pointed to a door directly across the hall.

“Thank you,” I said with a fake smile, then turned and walked away, hips swaying confidently.

The door he indicated was unlocked, and inside I found a communal shower room. I stripped off my dirty and torn clothing, and stood beneath one of the faucets. The water was cold, and it only lasted two minutes, but it was enough to wash away the filth of my day. When I was done, I grabbed a threadbare towel from a stack in the changing area, and did my best to dry my fur. I tried not to miss my full-body hairdryer too much. When I was as dry as I was going to get, I tossed the used towel into a hamper along with my ruined clothes, and stood before a full length mirror.

Between my pointed ears, my hair was dyed pink, and it grew longer than on the rest of my body. The color was pale, more similar to the color of my lips and nose than than the raspberry-pink shade of my tired eyes. I felt small, so much shorter than everyone else at barely over a hundred twenty centimetres. My scrawny muscles ached from all I’d put them through.

My white fur hid the scrapes and cuts I’d acquired throughout the day. All the blood washed off easily enough, from my wounds and my hands, but I could still feel it when I thought about it. I tried not to.

I gingerly touched the cast on my left wrist. It still throbbed, a constant reminder of how wrong I had been about the paladins. I had been so wrong about everyone. Hank... he’d seemed so friendly. Images flashed through my mind, violent and bloody, and I squeezed my eyes shut tight. “No no no, it’s not my fault!” I whimpered. “I’m okay. You’re okay. You did what you had to do.” I could still smell the charred flesh of the man who’d tried to... to...

I grabbed my cast and squeezed, biting my lower lip until I could taste blood. The pain roared in my ears, louder than the bad thoughts, until at last they went away.

I grabbed a fresh towel and wrapped it around my waist to hide my nudity, then silently walked back across the hall, eager to sleep in a bed. Just when I thought he was going to leave me outside, Tau wordlessly opened the door for me.

Our quarters were cramped, with two coffin-sized bunks and a couple of lockers and drawers for our clothes and personal affects. At one end of the room was a toilet behind a thin curtain.

“Here,” Tau said, and tossed me a stack of folded laundry. “I’m sure it’s not as nice as you’re used to.”

“Thanks.” The boxers were too baggy, and the tank top was scratchy against my fingertips, but I didn’t dare admit it.

“Top or bottom?” Tau asked, then sarcastically added “your highness.”

“Bottom, I guess,” I answered, then collapsed into the bottom bunk.

“That’s what I figured.”

I got the feeling I was missing out on a joke, but I didn’t have the energy to care. My brain shut off the moment my head hit the stony pillow.