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My heart sped up as I followed him.
I was really doing this!
Chapter 2
Tolreum
The ancestors were gifting me with such good fortune! Opal decided she wanted me to be her master. We’d all agreed to pay a portion of her contract, which had been unreasonably inexpensive for something as rare and precious as a human. I’d have to see if my crewmates were willing to let me buy them out of their portions so I could register my name as her sole owner.
I could understand why the little human didn’t want to be around all of us at once. She was probably used to having to work for multiple masters. Although the Massoc didn’t allow slavery, they could still use work contracts that could force her to work almost as if she was owned. She probably considered singling me out as a relief from arduous work under multiple demanding clients.
I needed to make sure she didn’t regret her choice. She'd be upset after she found out what we did to save her. But after she got over that, I'd be ready to shower her with attention and affection.
This little human would never want for anything ever again.
“These are large quarters," she said, turning in a circle to take in the room. She wasn’t wrong. We’d specifically bought a ship with four equally large personal quarters because this ship was going to be our home for many solars.
We were close to having enough wealth to buy a second ship, and then the four of us would split up. The eventual goal was to have enough wealth to hire help instead of doing everything ourselves.
She faced me. “Are you in charge?”
I sounded a negative rumble. “No, we are all equally in charge.”
She tilted her head. I was excited to recognize that movement from one of the educational vids put out by the Committee of Pet Welfare. That probably meant she had a question.
“Ask me anything,” I encouraged.
“If you’re all in charge, how do you make decisions quickly in an emergency?”
I was startled by her excellent question. I didn’t think humans had the intellectual capacity to think so abstractly.
“That was an issue that came up early in our partnership,” I admitted with an amused rumble. “We figured out the best way to organize was for each of us to be in charge of different things. If there is an emergency with the cargo, I’m in charge. If it’s a problem with the ship, then Mieshorum leads. Lexarit takes over if something goes wrong with the galley, enviro, or life support systems. If we’re dealing with a legal or diplomatic issue, then Narmuna will be in charge. It has worked very well over the last solar.”
“What was that sound you made when you first started talking?” she asked. “Does it mean something?”
Her curiosity was a good sign. “My species makes sounds to convey emotions. We can rumble from our chest boxes.” I sounded a soothing rumble, then a rumble of agreement. “Other sounds come out of our back plates.”
I turned to show her the overlapping, moving plates that ran down my spine. Then I clattered them together to make a soft negative rattle.
“That last one sounded like a hand softly slapping a thigh," she said. “What did they all mean?”
“Would you like me to go through the basics?” I asked. She nodded her head, and I took her though a few rumbles and rattles.
“Your soothing rumble sounds like a purr,” she said after I was done.
“Is that good or bad?” I asked, interested that my soothing rumble was the only one she commented on.
“It’s nice,” she murmured.
I started up a soothing rumble. “Then I can rumble like this whenever we are together.”
She tensed up. That was disappointing to see after she’d been growing more relaxed around me as we spoke. I wasn’t sure why my words made her uncomfortable.
“You’re safe with me,” I reminded her. “I’m very aware of how delicate humans are.”
She bobbed her head up and down. “Um, yeah, that’s good. Thanks.”
Looking everywhere but me, she moved past me to the bunk. She put a hand on my bed and pressed, as if testing the softness. She tugged the single blanket free of the tightly made bunk and rubbed it between her fingers.
