She gave another superior head jerk. “They may be idiots, but I am not. If you repeat this to either of them, I fully intend to deny it.”
“Fair enough,” Regi agreed. He liked Bevit, so he wouldn’t repeat her words. Besides, he needed to maintain good relations with all the command crew because he soon would need to make an extraordinary request. He needed to borrow the pirate ship once their own ship was ready to fly again so he could return to the Empire. The present situation gave him a good excuse for not going immediately to a temple, but he didn’t want to procrastinate too much. As it was, he would have to tell the exalteds that Poque had damaged the engines on a Coalition ship, which implied that she had noticed someone outside the Empire.
He was going to be as popular as a pox.
Dismissing that problem from his mind, he asked, “How is the pirate who tripped over me?”
“I should check the other ship to see if something in the air was interfering with oxygen absorption. There was a plethora of tripping over there.”
Regi rolled his eyes. No doubt the crew would have a grand time recounting his inability to walk in a straight line. He understood that some of that need to ridicule him came from their discomfort with having a Kowri in the crew. His people controlled huge segments of known space and had ships that terrified every other sapient species. However, he would rather they vented their inadequacies on the pirate. After all, he’d tripped without a god’s enthusiasm to off-balance him.
“How is he?” Regi asked. He assumed it was a male. Females tended to display some sign of child-bearing. Bevit had eight evenly-spaced mammary glands. That was a common trait among most sapient species, but she also had a tall plume of quill-like hair that her people used as a sexual display. Her femininity was unmistakable. But the pirate had been plain and from a species Regi hadn’t recognized.
Bevit pulled a chair close to his bed and sat with her elbows on her knees. “He's fascinating. I would put up with those two idiots fighting over that ship for an eternity if I got to explore mysteries like our pirate.”
“What’s so fascinating about him?”
“He has an odd number of digits.” She raised her own hand with two forward-facing fingers and four thumbs. Her species was unusual in having more thumbs than fingers, but if she was telling the truth about their pirate, that was unheard of. Or at least unheard of by Regi. He didn’t pay much attention to the biology of the hundreds of different aliens that wandered the universe. “How many digits does he have?”
“Four fingers,” she said, and then she lifted her thumbs, “but only one thumb. On one limb, it's on his left side and on the other, his right. Mirror symmetry.” She leaned back. “Most species have mirror symmetry, but not in the digits. It's fascinating. When I first saw his hands, I thought it might be some sort of birth defect. Sometimes there is damage in the womb, and one or more the digits won't develop correctly, and the offspring develops an odd number of fingers, but then I looked at his feet, and he has five digits on his feet as well. He has one large digit and then four of decreasing size. And then his nose. Oh my God. His nose.” She grabbed the sides of her face in shock.
Regi had only gotten a glimpse of the pirate's nose, but it had appeared rather unremarkable to him. It was narrow, so much so that his mouth was wider. Odd. However, the shape and position appeared normal.
Bevit clearly didn’t agree. “His nose shares an anatomical structure with his mouth.”
Regi frowned. “I don't understand what you're saying.”
“That's because you are a reasonable creature who would never dream of designing sapient life where the airway actually for a period of time shared the same anatomical structure that is used for consumption.”
Regi must have misunderstood, either that or she was pulling a practical joke on him. “If a creature breathed through the same tube he ate or drank, he would drown himself.”
“Exactly.” Bevit threw her hands into the air. “It's fascinating. He has a series of flaps that appear to redirect the air or water to the appropriate tubes after the passage splits. It is both highly illogical and the most insanely beautiful anatomical structure I've ever seen.”
“And if the water goes in the air tube?” The thought terrified Regi. The sight of water would send him into a paroxysm of terror. Since the gods had designed all life to follow the same basic rules—including a need for water—the design seemed unkind.
“I have to assume that would cause significant distress. I don't see any sign that he is capable of breathing underwater, so he probably has some sort of system for expelling food or water that gets into his lungs. He is the most fascinating individual I have seen in sixty years of medicine.” Bevit’s expression turned almost adoring. “This is why I joined a Coalition patrol ship. I wanted to see new species, and now I have seen a fascinating new species. I'm just sorry he's a pirate.”
“I will try to find you a unique and law-abiding species,” Regi promised.
She patted his arm. “I would appreciate it if you tried. I once thought a Kowri was the most exotic species I would ever see. Regi, I adore you, but you have lost my heart as the most unique creature on the ship.”
“I am not unique at all. There are billions of Kowri.”
“Who never let a medical scanner anywhere near them,” she said. “But I apologize that my fickle soul has chosen another oddity to obsess over.” She took his hand in hers as though they were lovers having some sort of fond farewell.
Regi tightened his hand around hers. “I'm glad. Your fascination with my biology is deeply disturbing.”
She laughed, the low grunting echoing off the walls of medical. “You could at least pretend to be sad that you have lost my admiration for your anatomy.” She let her finger follow a black stripe down his arm to his hand. If she wasn’t old enough to be his grandmother, this would have been insanely awkward. As it was, he found it only adequately awkward.
“Where's the pirate? Is he in the cells?”
Bevit shook her head. “His nose is so narrow that I worried about his breathing. I didn't want the crew to put him somewhere isolated, so I had them put him in one of the medical observation rooms. I know you want to talk to him, but be careful with your ribs. You haven’t fully recovered. If you have any pain or dizziness, come back. I’ve stabilized the two cracked bones, but they will take time to heal.”
“Yes, mother,” Regi told her.
“You’re as annoying as my children.” She headed toward her office.
Regi finally sat up. Someone had stripped him down to his breeches, so he took a few seconds to search the drawers for the rest of his clothing. His shirt had a scorched sleeve. “Poque, Goddess of wanderers, I dedicate myself to you,” he whispered, focusing inward for a moment. “Please do not break me before I can complete whatever task you have put in front of me.” Regi would have prayed for some clarity, but he was afraid that if Poque pushed him any harder, his bones would get crushed instead of simply broken. Prayer was only safe when the gods weren’t listening.
