"You don't watchanydramas," I said, "unless I make you."
His smile hooked up at one corner."I will admit that I have wondered if we might… put them at odds with one another.A war of attrition within the Assembly and its shadow.But it is a passing fancy.I can't imagine how I would begin to arrange that."
I didn't know what to make of that.Itwaslike something out of a drama, and maybe worth entertaining."We'd say that you could kill two birds with one stone," I said, doing my best to translate.
The look he shot me was incredulous, and I laughed and jostled his shoulder with mine, trying to keep the unease I felt at bay by listing the other weird sayings I could conjure to mind while Araxis looked increasingly skeptical and delighted in equal measure.The sounds of our voices echoed off the metal and polymer tunnel around us, making the whole dock feel bigger, emptier.That feeling only intensified as we walked through the cargo bay doors, which hissed open once Araxis pressed his hand against the access panel, and returned to our ship.
The effect of that eerie emptiness, the uncanny sense of a space that was preternaturally quiet when it ought to be bustling with activity, was only heightened by the overwhelming wash of déjà vu that hit me when we stepped into the hold.It was as if coming to the ship in a dream: it was the ship I knew and yet it had completely and fundamentally changed.
The cargo hold had always been large and empty, except for a few clusters of crates and barrels here and there.Now, it was roughly divided into large sections, each one stacked with massive containers that would have barely fit through the cargo doors, which Araxis locked behind us with a tap of his wristband.As we walked the paths between these containers, stacked so high that they effectively divided the cargo hold into a series of hallways, the lights overhead flicked on, matching our movement.It was bright, responsive, immediate.
"I guess you didn't go for the budget lights," I said mildly, squinting as I looked overhead.
Araxis huffed."No," he said."In two hundred years, someone will send gratitude to my spirit."He craned his neck as he peered down a few of the walkways through the cargo hold, shaped by the containers and crates that were stacked floor to ceiling, strapped in carefully with massive tethers that connected loops in the floor panels to those in the ceiling.
"Where are we supposed to put the shit that Nizanin is sending us?"I asked, scoping out the hold.It was functionally full.
Araxis tapped his wristband, calling up a hovering three-dimensional map of the cargo hold.Each container looming above us matched one glowing above his wrist.He tapped a few."These ones are empty.This one –" a smaller one near the entrance to the training room, "will be for the items belonging to our creche-mates.These are for the goods we're bringing to trade in Xitera."At my skeptical look – I'djustseen our warehouse and it was jam-packed – he trilled."I have calculated the volume quite carefully.Everything we're transporting already has a designated place, rest assured.We even have one additional container ready for any last minute requests from Xitera.There is room.Just."
"I guess we could always bunk up, if space gets tight," I offered, wry."I don't mind sharing if it's you."
Araxis immediately silvered under the bright lights in this strange and unfamiliar place I knew so well."Ah, well.I had already assumed as much.I've had some other changes made to the quarters upstairs."He glanced at his wristband."Would you care to see?We have time.I had planned to arrive early so that I might review the final adjustments.I could show them to you, if you'd like."
So we did just that.He walked me through the second floor, showing me the new water and air cyclers that had been installed, as well as the vastly improved climate control system."If you ever wish to forego your many beautiful sweaters, you can adjust the temperature in our bedroom to your liking," he said, sounding pleased as punch."And we can keep the training room much warmer now.You've said before that your fingers get cold."
He then showed me the new lab, the expanded kitchen and dining room, three recreation spaces that had previously been living quarters or storage spaces.There was even a spartan meeting room off the dining room which, Araxis said with some pride, he had designed so that it might also be used for the children's lessons or, with a pretty little blush, for any late night conversations.
"Yeah," I sighed wistfully, looking around."Can't imagine any other uses for a room like this."He rewarded me by gleaming.
The layer of grime, which I had come to appreciate, had been mostly buffed out, but I was pleased to see that the renovations were focused on making the ship more functional – on updating its systems and making it fit for a growing creche – rather than prettying up its rough edges.The hallways were still metal that echoed and clanked as we walked.The walls weren't fresh polymer, still retaining the patina of age.
When we made our way upstairs, Araxis was eager to show me the new bunks, which were just as efficient as before, although some had been expanded.He walked me through the room intended for the children, which had a nest-like bed as they expected.The quarters for Evreni, Yalrinn, and Avelthe had been reworked so that there was ample room for three as well as a comfortable looking chair for Avelthe; Araxis pointed to the very particular acoustic dampeners he'd had installed to help with Avelthe's sound sensitivity.
Araxis had considered everything.In fact, as I did the math on how many creche-mates we now had and how some of the rooms had been combined, I was surprised to realize that we had just enough bunks.Next to me on the walkway, Araxis trilled as he realized I was counting."Yes," he said, pleased, "it is fortunate that we have the right number, including one for a pilot, once we find a new one.I had anticipated having more empty space, but you have done a fine job in growing our creche, Sashen.When I tell you that you are a treasure, I recognize that the endearment is entirely insufficient – but I hope you are able to hear it nonetheless."
I shrugged as if hearing that didn't make me flush with pleasure, as if I didn't notice each and every time he complimented me."I mean, how could I show up to Xitera without an entourage, right?And I maybe have a line on a pilot.I've got a friend looking into it.She's confident."
Araxis blinked, studying me."Your human friend?"
"Yeah, Val is pretty well-connected.I mean, you've seen that firsthand.And she's basically the founding member of the Sashen and Araxis Fan Club.We should know either way by the time we head out."
The look on his features had to be pride, ithadto be, which was as disorienting as the first time I'd looked out the window of Alet Trident's ship and saw Seraphim vanishing into the distance, a new horizon open before me.
"In any case," I continued, brushing past the feeling, "it'll be weird to be on the ship and actuallyseepeople.I really thought you might have hallucinated basically your whole creche when I first arrived."
Araxis trilled, and I ran my fingers through my hair, a little nervous as the meeting with the Unbound ticked closer and closer.And maybe a little off-kilter here in the well-lit hallway: they were familiar bones, but a new face.And while it didn't mean much to me technically, I listened as he ran through the new systems they'd had installed, which Egnax had apparently been overseeing in exacting detail."She sends me at least six paragraphs each night," he confessed as we stepped into the helm."Last night, she told me all about the problem with the screws the install crew used to anchor the panels here."He tapped them; as far as I could tell, they were little hexes, unremarkable and nondescript."She said, if there were an explosion, these ones might sheer off, although she admitted that, in the case of an explosion on the helm, we are likely to have more significant issues than casing panels coming loose and causing a tripping hazard when wires fall to the floor."
"Speaking of explosions, where are the Maelstrom engines?"I asked, peering around.I didn't know much about them, except that they were dangerous and frightening and supposed to be very beautiful, the mechanisms that allowed a ship to slip into the subspace dimension that rippled throughout the galaxy.The storm roiling all around us, all the time, just a few inches out of alignment with our mundane layer of reality.I hadn't seen them on the second floor when we'd gone digging through the ship's systems.I was sure I'd have noticed: they were always incredibly obvious on dramas, massive glowing beacons that bathed everything around them in otherworldly light.
Araxis planted one foot on the pilot's chair and pushed himself upwards, reaching for a ceiling panel.With a flick, he unlatched something and the panel swung down.I stepped in closer, blinking upwards and saw –
"Uh," I started, squinting."Look.I don't mean to question your business acumen, but –"
He beamed down at me, nose crinkling with amusement."Our ship is very small, Sashen, and the technology has improved a great deal.This is our Maelstrom engine: it provides enough of a bubble for us to burn."Above his head was what looked to be a tube about the length of my forearm and only a little broader; inside was a glowing, roiling blue liquid, moving in waves and ripples as if pulled by some invisible tide.Which, of course, it was: this was a sliver of the Maelstrom brought back into our dimension, and like remembered like.It was enough of a tether to subspace that it could take us along for the ride, so long as someone knew how to bring us back out again.
"And is it… safe?"I asked, suddenly nervous.Every drama I'd ever seen had some long, terrifying sequences about the Maelstrom engine nearly exploding and killing all life on a nearby planet, or pulling someone apart on an atomic level, or sucking their consciousness into the Maelstrom and leaving behind only a withered husk of a body.It seemed like a dangerous thing to have right there above the pilot's head, which was alsoveryclose to our bedroom.
"It is much safer than a larger engine," Araxis assured me, carefully latching the panel back in place."Egnax has been exacting with every possible fitting.This will exert minimal strain on our pilot and minimal strain on the ship.Travel by the Maelstrom is never pleasant, but it will be efficient, at the very least.We've had an additional shuttle installed on the ship with the same model."
