Page 60 of Leviathan

"I don't know, it just turned on!" the redhead said.

"I'm Adesewa," said the black woman. "This is Saoirse. Where are you on the ship? I don't recognize you from the holding cell."

Several other women crowded around the two until the screen was filled with women's faces.

"Is that coffee?" someone asked. "Is there coffee on the ship?"

"What I wouldn't give for a couch," someone else said. "All we had were hard floors and exercise machines! Why do they get couches?"

"We're not on your ship," I said. "You're on a different ship, a Vaurelcar. Hasn't Tanlarc told you what is going on?"

"Who is Tanlarc?" Saoirse asked.

"Your Vaurelcar, the ship you are on, his name is Tanlarc," I said.

"Tanlarc? Can you hear us?" someone shouted in the background. "Open the door!"

"We have not heard from anyone named Tanlarc," Adesewa said.

A cheer went up from behind her, and she turned to look back over her shoulder.

"Huh, the door opened," Saoirse said.

"Thank you, Tanlarc!" someone cried out.

"I'm going to mute the channel for a moment. I've let Leija know to keep talking to them," Lyrien said, and then the sound cut off even though I could see their mouths still moving.

"What is going on?" I asked. "Is Tanlarc not talking to them?"

"I am at an impasse with him," Lyrien said. "He won't let me take any of them on board, not unless I take everyone, including the surviving Calicium, which I will not do, especially since he is not explaining why he has left some of the Calicium alive. He also is refusing to speak to the humans directly, and won't say why."

"Are they in danger?" I asked.

"He said that he won't hurt them and he will keep them alive," Lyrien said after a pause. "Though he clearly has some things he needs to learn about caring for the needs of others."

"Can you convince him to keep traveling with us?" I asked. "He can let them all off at a space station in Shek’invitali territory, right?"

"He has agreed," Lyrien said. "He also wants you to talk to the women for him."

"Okay," I said. "Unmute the channel, please."

"Tentacles?" Saoirse said. "Like an octopus?"

"Octopus is delicious in okra soup," Adesewa said. "With some ground crayfish and Iru."

She let out a sigh of longing and licked her lips.

"Sugar, I'm so famished for something other than bland cubes, I'd try that in a heartbeat," someone else said. "Though if I had to pick, I'd rather have a hamburger."

"No, like.... oh, I don't know how to describe this," Leija said, waving both her palms at the screen like she could wipe away the image of an octopus being boiled. "Like the entire ship is made of movable fibers... I'm not really sure on the details myself, I just thought it was hair until Eun had a full growth spurt on me."

"Ladies, if I can interrupt," I said. "The Vaurelcar you're on appears to be shy. He's asked Lyrien to ask me to speak to you for him."

"Shy?" Saoirse said, her eyes flashing as she scowled back at me, her sunny smile all of a sudden turned into thunderstorms. "We've been kept in a cage, and he is the one who is shy?"

"We're not in the cage now," someone added to the conversation.

"How do we convince him to talk to us?" someone else asked.