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“Yes, please,” I said, excited to get some insight on the ship I was traveling on.

He sounded a rumble of agreement. “Certainly.”

Then he switched over so I could see a 3D holo of all the ship's systems. I felt like he'd handed me the codes to a safe full of wealth!

Tolreum

“We need to talk about Opal,” Lexarit said the moment we were alone.

A shot of fear went through me. Did he know we'd been intimate?

“In regards to what?” I asked.

Lexarit sounded a worried rumble. “I don't think she's of low intelligence. We had a conversation while you were taking her clothes to be cleaned. She’s proved to me that she's exceptionally smart.”

Relief made a rumble of amusement slip out of me. Lexarit misunderstood my amusement.

“I'm being serious,” he said with an annoyed rattle. “I'm beginning to question her entire species being labeled as they are.”

I completely agreed with him, but I didn't want to give in too easily. “Perhaps she's a particularly brilliant human.”

“The only way we could know is if we interact with some other humans,” Lexarit said, sounding a frustrated rumble. “Even better is if we could observe Opal interacting with them. If she pretends to be less intelligent, then we'd know she was used to pretending around her fellow humans.”

“That's unlikely to happen,” I said.

“Perhaps not,” he said with an excited rattle. “Do you remember when we dropped off an entire shipment of fuel rounds at that station under construction?”

“The one with the rotating platform?” I asked, vaguely remembering. It had been in our first solar of business and we'd taken a last-minute assignment we barely managed to do within the time frame requested.

“Yes, that one,” he said. “There was a human there when we were.”

I let out a rattle of surprise. “There was?”

“We never saw her,” he explained. “Her owner was very protective of her. But he is the one who runs the company that made that station. It should be easy enough to find out their schedule. Perhaps we could intercept them at a station or colony."

I liked the idea of giving Opal a fellow human to interact with, even if only for a short while.

“Do you think the owner would agree to that?” I asked.

“I've heard his pet is insistent on meeting every human she can,” I said.

Part of me was eager to talk to another owner so I could see if he had any insight on Opal, but the other part feared Opal would confess to the other human what we'd done. That human could tell her owner and I'd lose everything.

My hesitation was brief because Opal was more important than me.

“See what you can find out,” I urged.

“I'll send out data packets now,” he said, going back into the command room. I followed him back inside to hear Mieshorum praising her.

“Yes, exactly,” he said. “That is the third redundancy. You're very good at reading schematics."

“Only this kind,” she demurred, never lifting her eyes from the holo display at Mieshorum’s workstation. She shifted the image 180 degrees then expanded it. “What about this over here?”

Mieshorum eagerly answered, then continued to explain as they traced various nodes and systems. I knew Opal wasn't being polite, she was deeply interested. I was sure that if Mieshorum quizzed her later, he'd be impressed with her retention of knowledge.

Narmuna had been working quietly at his display but looked up and spoke. “Twin Star Station has responded to my request. We have permission to visit their medical area and merchant row, but only for a limited time. We have to shuttle in, they don't want our ship to dock.”

“That's acceptable,” I responded. It was common for us to have to keep our ship at a certain distance away from a station if we weren't there to deliver. It was a safety measure many places utilized. It was the reason we had a tiny shuttle. In an emergency it could fit all four of us, although it was tight. I didn't think we'd be able to get the four of us and Opal in there at the same time.