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I smiled at the way she said her warning. I didn't know if there was a similar expression in Kyven or if the translator on my end hadn't done its job, but I got the message.
"Is the captain always like that?" I asked quietly, running under the assumption that the pirate woman wouldn't be able to hear me from all the way up on the bridge. Rachel had never said anything about Tamsia having enhanced hearing but I didn't want to take my chances and get booted off this spaceship.
The pilot chuckled, a lovely bubbly sound. "She is. Go sit, human."
"My name is Heather," I told her firmly. It was one thing for Sahra to refer to me as 'just another human', but I wasn't going to let this stranger call me that.
"Heather," she repeated with a slight lisp and a bit of a smirk. "Go sit, Heather."
Before I could tell her off for mocking me, she was already jogging towards the front of the ship. I looked around to see if Sahra and Abby had any thoughts about my weird interaction with her and her qoark but they were lost in their own world as usual.
No wonder I was striking up conversations with strange women. It would be good once we reached Earth, then maybe I wouldn’t feel so alone.
4
Atina
As much as I loved Kyven, there was always something satisfying about leaving its orbit.
"We're nearing the edge of Kyven's gravitational field, secondary left booster is almost warmed up and ready to shift into second gear," I said into my headset, warning Katak so he was ready once we shot into open space.
"Heard, right booster will be ready too. On your signal."
Jiji squeaked demandingly as he bounced up and down my dashboard.
"Not now," I told him, pushing him to the side so I could keep a close eye on the counter, tightening my grip on the lever. "Shifting into second gear in three, two, one." The ship wobbled ever so slightly but held stable as we tore free from Kyven's gravity. "We are in open space, I repeat, we are in open space. Setting course to Planet #47283 and switching to automatic pilot."
"Sounds good to me. All in a day's work," Katak replied, probably already leaning back with his feet up on the dash.
"Feet down," Captain Ellabee commanded icily. "This is the bridge, not your cabin."
He rolled his eyes at me, but made sure that Ellabee couldn't see it. As much as she was strict and bossy, she was also the best captain I'd ever worked for, and I knew Katak felt the same way.
While we went through the standard checks and manoeuvres, I couldn't help but wonder what our passengers were doing just now. I'd shown them to the lounge, a dingy room that didn't deserve that name, before hurrying back to the bridge just in time to avoid Ellabee's anger for being late. Maybe I could give them a tour of the ship later on, once my shift ended. I checked the time. Another two hours. Urgh. Not that I didn't love my job, but right now I wanted to be elsewhere.
But why? What was so fascinating about the passengers that I got all distracted? I never usually cared about guests on the P0TA-2. They were a necessary nuisance who often got in the way of the day to day running of the ship. I'd told Ellabee multiple times that I didn't support her strategy of taking on paying passengers. But today, I felt very different. With the same analytical thinking I usually reserved for difficult manoeuvres, I scrutinised my feelings. I wasn't interested in all three of the guests. Only one. The fire-haired female with the shy smile. Why? She was so different from the females I usually spent time with. She wasn't even Kyven. She seemed to be living on our planet, but I'd gathered from our short interaction that she didn't know much about my kind. She'd looked at me blankly when I'd mentioned Kyvaraks, which meant she was clueless about our history. Granted, there were some Kyvens who didn't know much about Kyvaraks either, but they were usually racist, ignorant or both.
"Atina!" Captain Ellabee snapped. "Why are we flying in a circle?"
I realised my finger was pushing down on the wrong button. Rak. Such a rookie's mistake. I had to focus. Get through this shift. And then find the passengers so I could get the fire-haired female out of my mind.
Once I was able to take a break, I made my way down from the bridge, surprised to find the three females still sitting in the lounge. Nobody had bothered to show them to their cabin.
"Finally!" the Kyven female exclaimed. Had she ever introduced herself? No, she'd told us the names of her companions, but not her own. "I was starting to think we'd have to sleep in here."
I looked around for any other member of my crew who could take over. I only wanted to talk to Heather, not all three of them.
"Are you going to show us to our cabins?" the Kyven asked, no, demanded.
"I suppose I can, although technically I'm on a break. Follow me."
I sighed internally as I led them to the guest cabins. I'd been hoping to have a drink, maybe a meal with the human, not play tourist guide. Why hadn't someone else done this already?
The sleeping quarters were in the starboard section of the ship. The smell of dirty socks wafted from Kayluk's cabin and I fastened my step. The guest cabins were at the end of the corridor, the furthest away from the bridge.
"Both cabins are only big enough for two kyvenoids each, so one of you will have to be on your own," I explained. "There is a small wash cabin in between them, but you can also use the communal washing space. Meal times are whenever the cook feels like making something or whenever the captain gets hungry. It'll be announced with a gong. You really can't miss it. Your baggage should have already been brought to the cabins, but if not, let someone know."
Not me, I begged internally. I had other plans. Like snuggling up with Jiji and eating an entire bowl full of quika crisps. Where was my little qoark? It usually followed me around the P0TA-2, but it looked as if it had stayed on the bridge. Traitor.
