“Can an unconscious decision be noble?”
Tev didn’t have an answer.
Engineer Yan was nowhere to be seen, but there was some vigorous cursing coming from behind the console, interrupted by discordant screeches. Occasionally, a tuft of his dark hair would pop out from behind a panel and disappear in an instant before the chain of curses would welcome a new, vibrant addition.
Station security kept to themselves, crouched around a folding table with a deck of cards. Occasionally, one of them would look up and give Iris a disapproving glare, and then return to the game. Iris didn’t blame them; he was a cumbersome addition to the already large roster of academics that security had to watch over. Surely they were getting paid per person and would be docked pay for any and every incident. More people meant more potential incidents to manage, more bodies to corral.
“I sort of fell into it, to be perfectly honest,” Iris told Tev. “I grew up around other monks. When I got older, I wanted to help others the way they had helped me, and so I became a Vessel.”
“A Vessel of the Light,” Tev muttered. “There is a ring to that.”
What many laypersons didn’t comprehend was that being a monk was no different than being an engineer, or a doctor, or a pilot. It was a job. A job with rules and governing bodies, and too many people telling one another how to better do their work. There were nuances to learn and tests to pass, and some days one woke up not wishing to do any work that day, but the work demanded to be done. Recently, Iris had been having more and more of those mornings.
Finding the natural lull in the conversation, Riyu gently shoved a warm mug into Iris’s hands. “Enough chitchat. Help yourself. There are sandwiches in the cooler and—” She caught herself mid-sentence. “And if I remember correctly, you can’t eat meat.Sorry.They’re ham, or at least I think it’s ham. If it helps, it’sbarelymeat, it’s lab grown.”
Meat.
Iris’s mouth watered. He hadn’t had meat in over six months. The flecks of fish in the soup he had chugged between shuttle transfers on Inon Station didn’t count. He hadn’t had much to eat at all since Inon and his initial departure from the Northern Temple. Two rice patties and some dry fruit barely counted. Iris’s stomach released an indignant growl, and he exercised utmost restraint not to bolt straight for the cooler. Instead, he pressed his palms together and graced Riyu with a deep bow. “Thank you for your kindness. As you know, Vessels rely on the offerings of people like yourself to get by when we’re not at our temples. We’re not a picky bunch and lab-grownmeat … Well, nothing perished for it to come into being. There isn’t any problem.”
Riyu sighed with relief.
It tastes the same!Iris slinked past Tev towards the cooler.
So you tell me.But VIFAI mirrored his excitement.
Iris had just reached inside to pull out a sandwich when a deafeningbang!came from the console, closely accompanied by an exuberant cry from Yan.
“I guess he finally got it,” Jesi said and nudged Tev. “See? You leave him alone to brood, and he makes progress.”
“Crabs!” Yan leapt from behind the console. He flailed his hand in the air and with the third shake, something small and red flicked off his finger, flew across the room, and slammed into the wall. As it hit the floor, the red dot scurried from view and back behind the console. Meanwhile, an avalanche of similar red dots, pulsing and twitching, poured out from underneath the panel. Thousands of them crawled over one another and scattered in all directions in a magnificent stampede. Iris grabbed the first sandwich his fingers found and threw it into his robes without looking. He’d eat it when the crabs had subsided.
“Yan just can’t catch a break,” Tev said.
“Fucking crabs,” Yan seethed, crouching atop the console. “No wonder nothing works here. They’ve clawed their way through anything electronic. Every wire is chewed up; there’s just crabs. Everything inside that panel iscrabs.”
Both Riyu and Ishtan did their best to stifle their laughter. Station security kept playing their card game, unfazed, despite the ample crabs between their feet. “Can we eat them?” Riyu asked, outright laughing, “Can we make a paella?”
“We’d have to make it vegetarian for our guest here,” Ishtan said. Tev snorted.
While everyone laughed about the crabs, one had scurried all the way to Iris’s feet. He knelt and let it run onto his hand before he lifted it in the air. The critter scurried across his palm as Iris flipped his hand back and over, balancing the crustacean. “Isn’t it amazing that they’ve survived aboard the ship all this time?” Iris asked, looking intently at the crab.
Ishtan shrugged. “I suppose they don’t have any natural predators here, unless of course, you count Yan.”
Iris set the crab back on the ground and let it rejoin its companions. The red tide subsided, the stragglers having found their way between sparse shrubbery. When the tsunami had passed, Yan plopped atop the console with his head in his hands, defeat leaving his body with a sigh. Now that the immediate threat of pinches was gone, he directed his sour mood towards the group. Iris was startled by his shrill whistle.
“Didn’t I tell you to do your work and stay out of our way?” Yan cocked his head. “This doesn’t look like working, this looks like taking a tea break.”
Iris bowed slightly. “Dr. Alo was kind enough to offer me some food and tea.”
Yan whistled again, this time at Riyu who threw him a death glare in return. “Doctor.Next time, do not offer him any food. Make him ask for it.”
“What difference does it make?”
Yan hopped off the console and dusted off his trousers. “They’re not allowed to ask.”
He really has it out for you. Do you want me to find some dirt on him? Financial accounts? Divorce proceedings? Embarrassing videos from grade school?
We’re not doing that.Iris smiled politely but clutched at the sandwich in his robes.Yet.
